1

Chapter 1

Introduction

Evaton is one of the oldest remaining freehold locations in South Africa yet its history

is less well-known compared to locations and townships that were established after it.

The history of Evaton can be better understood within the broader context of

economic and rural transformation that took place from the late nineteenth to the mid-

twentieth century. This was a period that witnessed crucial developments that included

industrialisation, the growth of urbanisation, the influx of Africans1 who serviced the

towns and manufacturing industries, as well as the movement of sharecroppers and

labour tenants from white farms. For the Union government, all these historical

dynamics created a new problem of control. This crisis was addressed by creating new

policies that aimed at controlling African people in urban areas, isolating them by

consigning them to urban locations. These locations were designed to be labour

reserves that secured a supply of cheap labour for white businesses. In these

residential spaces opportunities for personal advancement and financial independence

through trade were limited. Local white authorities in many cases denied Africans

property rights and tightly monitored the access of Africans people to these locations.

Evaton was distinct from most other African settlements. One aspect that made it

distinctive was its status as a freehold township. Of course, this status makes it a rarity

like the freehold areas of Johannesburg such as Sophiatown and Alexandra. However,

the other areas mentioned were really part of the greater Johannesburg urban area.

Despite the formal status of both Alexandra and Sophiatown as being outside the

municipal boundary, these freehold settlements were labour reserves with a high

1 The labels used to describe indigenous people of South Africa have undergone significant changes in

the past years. In recent times, two labels have been used most often to describe indigenous people as

‘black’ and ‘African’ but it is not generally clear what the preferred term is from the perspective of the

indigenous themselves. For this study the author will refer to them as Africans.

2

population of wage labourers by the 1930s. Evaton, some miles distant from

Johannesburg, was not. Officially some of these freehold localities were labelled as

slums. The chief justification for labeling them as such was based on their over-

crowdedness, poverty, and a blighted physical appearance. Unlike Evaton, which was

sparsely populated, Sophiatown suffered from an ‘insalubrious environment [that] was

marked by gutters, uncollected garbage …inadequate filthy lavatories, and stench.’2

What distinguished Evaton from these areas was its economic history, self-

sufficiency, demography, and geographical location. ‘Evaton is one of the most

orderly places I know of in the Transvaal,’ said Sol Plaatjie, testifying to the Native

Economic Commission.3 Physically, the area had big yards which enabled residents to

be relatively successful subsistence farmers for the first three decades of its

development in the twentieth century. Subsistence farming allowed local residents to

refrain from working for white industrialists. Another important aspect that made

Evaton stand out was the presence of Wilberforce Institute, the only African

controlled school in Transvaal. The main purpose of the Institute was to produce self-

reliant citizens. In its motto ‘African advancement,’ Wilberforce stressed the

importance of providing students with industrial training as well as academic skills.

The school was under the control of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which

African Americans established in the United States and attracted a group of educated

Africans to settle in the area.

Even after the collapse of subsistence farming, the area provided opportunities for

entrepreneurial growth and opportunities for Africans. These opportunities included

enterprises such as grave digging and ambulance operations. In the freehold areas of

Johannesburg, these services were under the control of the Johannesburg City Council.

Because of its relative autonomy and opportunities, Evaton attracted Africans with

means to buy properties and set up homes there. These Africans saw Evaton as an area

where they could advance their social and economic life in an urban environment.

Depending on individual interest, Evaton’s freehold status and autonomy provided

room for Africans who aspired to advance themselves in different spheres of life such

2 D. Hart and G. Pirie, ‘The Sight and Soul of Sophiatown,’ Geographical Review, Vol 74, 1984, p. 40

3 Report of Native Economic Commission 1930-1932 UG, 22, Pretoria Government S. Plaatjie’s

testimony in the Printers , 1932

3

as religion, the economy and education. The area also provided a refuge to Africans

who sought to evade municipal control.

Evaton was established in 1905 and is situated thirteen miles from Vereeniging and

twenty eight miles from Johannesburg. As a thinly populated semi-agricultural centre

in the Vaal, Evaton attracted displaced sharecroppers that were squeezed off the land

around the Highveld4 as well as educated Africans mostly from the Reef. There were

also a few independent farmers from Natal and some Oorlams families who came

from the Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek and Orange Free State. Similar social, political,

and economic forces caused these groups to move to Evaton. The urban educated

group was deprived of the right to land ownership elsewhere where they could build

schools and churches. They also suffered under pass laws that restricted their

movements. Sharecroppers and a small number of Oorlams were displaced after the

Anglo-Boer War, which together with technological developments forced them to

seek land where they could continue with their farming enterprises. Independent

farmers that enjoyed the privilege of owning land in colonial Natal were attracted by

the freehold status of the area and the large stands that were available. For these

groups, access to land and the right to landownership contributed to their economic

prosperity and educational and spiritual advancement as well as the right to use both

physical and social resources. Some liquidated their livestock and assets and invested

in entrepreneurial activities. Evaton was therefore salient and central to African

economic independence and advancement. Considering their rural entrepreneurial

exposure, both former sharecroppers and independent farmers moved to Evaton with

the hope of re-establishing themselves as commercial farmers. However, the

subdivision of land which reduced their size of land into small agricultural holdings

did not allow local residents to farm for commercial gain, but for subsistence

purposes.

The early phase of local development was characterized by the flourishing of the

subsistence economy. During this period, the local economy was based on pre-

colonial reciprocity that relied on a strong sense of sharing among local families.

Monetary ties were minimal and the local economy was characterized by a range of

4 T. Keegan, ‘Crisis and Catharsis in the Development of Capitalism in South African Agriculture,’

African Affairs, 84, July 1985, p. 372

4

small-scale economic activities along with bartering that was integrated with social

interactions. Under this economic system, there was a greater degree of local

community participation in all local activities ranging from public works to home

building. Evaton was then a small settlement, but its social and economic life was to

be disturbed by the development of secondary industries in nearby Vereeniging.

The development of secondary industries in the late 1930s and 1940s triggered

African employment in manufacturing to grow rapidly. Many workers that were

drawn into the labour market were newly urbanised while others came from the farms

where they had worked as farm workers. In urban municipalities, access was tightly

controlled under the 1923 Urban Areas Act and there was a serious shortage of

housing. This made it difficult for many Africans to settle freely in these areas without

being subject to regulations. Life in urban municipal areas became difficult for

African men and women who were restricted from settling in urban centres which

were the only places where employment was available. African people were not

permitted to settle without the necessary paperwork. These conditions pushed many

African migrant workers to unregulated areas like Evaton which enjoyed freehold

status. In Evaton, these workers rented rooms from local stand-holders and turned the

locale into their urban home. Economically, this transformation led to the local shift

from subsistence farming to an open market monetary economy that depended on the

growth of secondary industry. This new economic system gave birth to the emergence

of local enterprises. These developments in Evaton happened at the same time as the

coming to power of the National Party. They drew the attention of the Nationalist

government that implemented new measures of control which impacted negatively on

the local autonomy of black people.

Study aims

The primary aim of this study is to explore the origins and historical evolution of

African entrepreneurship in Evaton. In order to understand the rise of entrepreneurship

it is necessary to focus first on the origins of Evaton, the life stories of its pioneers as

well as the processes and structures which generated local entrepreneurship. The study

will discuss the internal and external forces that led to the emergence of local

enterprises and how the arrival of newcomers in the late 1930s and 1940s impacted

5

agricultural spaces which led to the collapse of subsistence farming. This study

addresses questions such as why some local businesses survived and expanded while

others collapsed. The first part of the study seeks to understand the contextual factors

that played a significant role in shaping entrepreneurial behaviour and action. What

kind of entrepreneurial activities did people engage in, who owned them, and what

motivated owners to start them? It further explores how these businesses were attuned

to the needs of a changing local market economy and how it was linked to the

changing demands of local consumers. Finally, the study details the connection

between South African national politics and local entrepreneurship. This connection is

characterized by entrepreneurial regulatory measures and its role and impact on local

enterprises. Special consideration is given to changing state policies relating to

African entrepreneurship. Given the direct involvement of the state in all aspects of

economic life, this research explores the impact of state policies on African

entrepreneurship. It seeks to understand whether the policies facilitated entry into

African entrepreneurship or it made it more difficult.

Research Questions

Primary Research Question

How did economic independence of African residents evolve in Evaton during the

period of 1905 to the 1960s?

Subsidiary questions

What was the nature of the subsistence economy and why did it collapse?

What was the nature and evolution of local entreprenuership?

What were the categories of entrepreneurial activities that emerged and how did

they evolve and change over time?

How was the entrepreneurial culture and attitude attuned to the needs of the

changing local market economy and changing demands over time?

6

What were the factors that contributed to the emergence of a relatively vibrant

entrepreneurial class in Evaton between the late 1930s to 1960s, and why did

many of them experience a decline from 1940s.

Rationale

The history of segregated African municipal townships in the urban areas of South

Africa has received considerable scholarly attention.5 Scholars have made an immense

contribution by focusing on different themes that include resistance, forced removals,

gangs, migrant urban culture and many other topics.6 They generally have portrayed

townships mainly as labour reservoirs or sites of resistance and gangs. Much less

attention has been given to the history of internal economic activities and local

entrepreneurship in particular. It could be argued that this gap in research has resulted

in a representation of African people as unresponsive to economic opportunities and

resistant to innovation. They are mainly perceived as labourers. This calls for an

exploration of the history of African entrepreneurship. Therefore it is understandable

why entrepreneurial history should be studied in Evaton, and why we have to

understand the historical significance of the founder entrepreneurs and their

contributions to the local economy.

The history of Evaton can be situated within a wider history of African townships in

small towns. Because these towns and their townships have long been marginalised in

South African historiography, their histories have not grown in scale and in scope. In

the Vaal Triangle, for instance, the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre attracted scholarly

5 G. Baines, ‘Origins of Urban Segregation: Local Government and the Residence of Africans in Port

Elizabeth 1845-1865, ‘South African Historical Journal 1990, Vol. 22, 1990, A. J. ‘Christopher

Apartheid Planning in South Africa, The Case of Port Elizabeth,’ Geographical Journal’ , Vol. 153,

No.2 1987, pp 195 -204, P, Bonner and L. Segal, Soweto, A History, Cape Town, Maskew Miller

Longman, 1998, H. Fast, ‘Pondoks, Houses and Hostels: A History of Nyanga, 1946-1970, with a

Special Focus on Housing.’ PhD Thesis, University of Cape Town, Cape Town1995, S. Field, ‘The

Power of Exclusion: Moving Memories from Windermere to the Cape Flats, 1920-1990. PhD Thesis,

University of Essex, Colchester, 1996, P. Maylam, ‘African Squatters in Durban, 1935-1950,’

Canadian Journal of African Studies 17, 413-28, 1983, I. Edwards, ‘Mkhumbane Our Home African

Shantytown Society in Cato Manor Farm, 1946 -1960.’ PhD Thesis, University of Natal, Durban, 1989 6 C. Glaser, ‘Anti-Social Bandits, Juvenile Delinquency and the Tsotsi Gang Sub Culture on the

Witwatersrand, 1935-1960’ Master’s Thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, 1990, N. Kagan, African

Settlements in the Johannesburg Area 1903-1923. Master’s Thesis University of Witwatersrand,

Johannesburg, J. Lucas, Space, Society and Culture: Housing and Local Level Politics in a Section of

Alexandra Township, 1991-1992, Master’s Thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg,

1995, P, Bonner and L, Segal Soweto, A History, Cape Town, Maskew Miller Longman, 1998

7

attention, and as a result, some scholars began to explore the history of Sharpeville.7

Yet little is known about African urban experience of the surrounding townships of

Evaton, Boipatong, Sebokeng and Bophelong. In the field of historical studies, these

townships remain marginalised and do not enjoy the same status and attention that

Sharpeville has received. As sites of African experience, there is a need for historical

research in these townships that could make an invaluable contribution to the

historiography of South African townships. This study will therefore inform us why

the local social structure allowed local residents to engage in entrepreneurial activities

and how trade evolved and changed over time.

Literature Review

Few studies have demonstrated that subsistence farming was practiced in urban areas.

Bonner and Nieftagodien’s study of Alexandra provides some indication that at its

early stage of development the township displayed a mixed rural and urban character.8

This character attracted many displaced sharecroppers and labour tenants who came

from the countryside to buy properties in the township. Alexandra plots were

appreciably larger than those in Sophiatown.9 Alexandra provided a space where local

residents could practice subsistence farming and keep livestock. Some residents had

orchards and they could plant vegetables.10

Initially, Alexandra’s population was low,

from 1920s onwards the settlement was streamed by large a proportion of African

urban workers who were pushed out of urban centre of Johannesburg by different

forces, such as the 1923 Urban Areas legislation that proclaim urban Johannesburg to

be white.11

Alexandra which was not subject to provision became an attraction. At the

same time, the geographical location of Alexandra which was located ‘on the doorstep

of a major urban centre,’ as well as its freehold character that fell outside of municipal

7 For Sharpeville see P. Frankel, An Ordinary Atrocity: Sharpeville and its Massacre, New Haven, Yale

University, 2001. S. E. M. Pheko, The True Story of Sharpeville, Johannesburg, Tokoloho

Development Association, 2001 P. Parker and J. Mokhesi-Parker, In the Shadow of Sharpeville:

Apartheid and Criminal Justice, New York, New York University Press, 1998; D. Howarth, ‘The

Ideologies and Strategies of Resistance in Post-Sharpeville South Africa: Thoughts on Anthony Marx's

Lessons of Struggle,’ Africa Today, Vol. 41, 1994 pp21-28, R.A Reeves, Shooting at Sharpeville: The

Agony of South Africa, Houghton Mifflins, 1961, T. Lodge, Sharpeville: An Apartheid Massacre and its

consequences, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2011

8 P. Bonner and N. Nieftagodien, Alexandra: A History, Johannesburg, Wits University Press, 2009

9 Ibid

10 Ibid

11 Ibid

8

control, added to this attraction.12

These factors became the core issue to the rapid

growth of the number of sub-tenants and the early decline of subsistence economy in

the 1920s. This rapid population expansion deprived local stand-owners a farming

land where they practised agriculture for subsistence purpose for almost a decade.

They had to accommodate urban workers as tenants in their properties. The study of

Alexandra is relevant to this research as it discusses the influx of sharecroppers, and

migrant workers. Bonner et al study also reveals that sharecroppers turned urban

entrepreneurs in Alexandra. However, there are crucial differences between these

areas, particularly with the process of dependency upon waged labour. Unlike

Alexandra, Evaton’s subsistence economy that was subsequently followed by the

emergence of local entrepreneurship delayed the teleological trajectory to labour

market. In other words, the local sinking into labour market was not easy or deep-

seated but it was slow. In her study of Edendale Sheila Meintjes13

reveal how the

steady process of converting amaZulu led to the establishment of the freehold

settlement of Edendale in Pietermaritzburg. She examines white missionary attitudes

to granting freehold land tenure to Africans in Natal. In her study consideration is

given to the reasons why in the early years of Natal’s colonial era small scale ‘petty

commodity production’ was fostered by the government.

Meintjes exhibits how a missionary by the name of James Allison formulated the idea

of economic independence that constituted Edendale Christian community for many

decades. How he equipped local converts with skills to compete with whites in an

integrated social and economic community of Pietermaritzburg. It is in this context

that the growth of agricultural small holding was encouraged by Allison among

Edendale converts. ‘Another equally important and entirely practical reason for

Allison’s emphasis on agricultural and artisanal occupation in mission education was

the need to make the station self sufficient.’14

Before the expansion of

Pietermaritzburg, Edendale was sparsely populated and local residents established the

settlement as a self-sufficient enclave that depended on subsistence farming.

Meintjes provides insight on subsistence farming in urban areas. However, her work is

limited by the period it covers; this is the era from 1850 to 1906. The most recent

12

Ibid 13

S. Meintjes, Edendale 1850-1906: A case study of rural transformation and class formation in an

African Mission in Natal, Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of London, 1988 14

Ibid, p.102

9

follow up study that cover later dates map out how subsistence farming collapsed in

Edendale. Gwala has more recently explained how until the late 1950s and 1960s, the

landowning group was still dominated by a few well known families who owned large

tracts of land, some of them as big as 30 hectares. These landowners rented land in

some plots where there were 200 tenant families to one landowner. These tenants did

not own anything except for their wattle and daub structures.15

Local regulations did

not permit the landowners to allow more than one structure per one-quarter of an acre.

According to Gwala,

tenants used to have access to large chunks of land on which they used to plant mielies

and other crops like beans, peas and pumpkins… The planting of mielies was happening

as late as the mid-seventies. For many people this has been one way of coping with

unemployment16

Gwala’s analysis reveals that the expansion of the surrounding municipal townships

and population growth impacted negatively on the local subsistence economy in

Edendale. The scholarly analysis of a number of freehold areas and the development

of African municipal townships in different South African regions illuminate broader

social processes that affected these settlements.17

In so doing, historians have

examined the connection between apartheid government policies, the development of

tightly controlled municipal townships and its impact on population growth in

freehold settlements.18

Subsistence farming in urban environment was a distinguishing

feature of the freehold area of Alexandra in Transvaal and Edendale in Natal. Evaton

displayed these distinct features even more emphatically as it was the only urban

freehold township in Transvaal that practiced subsistence farming longer than

15

N. Gwala, ‘Political Violence and Struggle for Control in Pietermaritzburg,’ Journal of Southern

African Studies, Vol, 15, No. 3, 1989 16

Ibid, p. 508 17

C. M. Elias, An Historical Review of the Supply of Housing for Urban Africans in the Cape

Peninsula 1900-1982, unpublished paper, University of Stellenbosch, Department of Sociology,

Occassional Paper 7, May 1983,

G. Baines, ‘Origins of Urban Segregation: Local Government and the Residence of Africans in Port

Elizabeth 1845-1865, ‘South African Historical Journal 1990, Vol. 22, 1990, A. J. ‘Christopher

Apartheid Planning in South Africa, The Case of Port Elizabeth,’ Geographical Journal’ , Vol. 153,

No.2 1987, pp 195 -204, P, Bonner and L, Segal Soweto, A History, Cape Town, Maskew Miller

Longman, 1998, H, Fast, ‘Pondoks, Houses and Hostels: A History of Nyanga, 1946-1970, with a

Special Focus on Housing.’ PhD Thesis, University of Cape Town, Cape Town1995, S Field, ‘The

Power of Exclusion: Moving Memories from Windermere to the Cape Flats, 1920-1990. PhD Thesis,

University of Essex, Colchester, 1996, P. Maylam, ‘African Squatters in Durban, 1935-1950, Canadian

Journal of African Studies 17, 413-28, 1983, I. Edwards, ‘Mkhumbane Our Home African Shantytown

Society in Cato Manor Farm, 1946 -1960.’ PhD Thesis, University of Natal, Durban, 1989 18

Ibid

10

Alexandra. In the previous paragraphs we have shown that Alexandra experienced the

decline of subsistence farming as early as the1920s, yet in Evaton subsistence farming

lasted till the late 1940s.

Over the past four decades, historical studies of African entrepreneurship have

arguably stagnated. There remains a serious lack of literature on this topic. There are

very few detailed biographies of local African entrepreneurs or other studies that helps

us to better understand the complex and varied character of African entrepreneurship.

Arguably, the first major study of entrepreneurship is the classical collection of

biographies by Mweli Skota who recorded the lives of African entrepreneurs in South

Africa. As a journalist, Skota saw the need to record African entrepreneurs and other

members of the African middle class.19

He provided the names and short biographical

narratives of African entrepreneurs of the Transvaal particularly of the Reef and the

Vaal areas. The strength of Skota’s work lies in his recording and the appraisal of the

careers and achievements of his contemporaries. The main contribution of Skota’s

biographical writing was the fact that he gave detailed attention to individual personal

lives and attitudes. For instance, he documented that in the 1940s and 1950s,

entrepreneurs like JCP Mavimbela and Paul Mosaka bought property in Evaton in

preference to other areas. In his work Skota captures the detail description of personal

lives of these entrepreneurs. He covers basic facts such as education, work,

entrepreneurial activities, relationships and death. For instance, he narrates how

Mavimbela died in a car accident on his way to Evaton.

The limitations of Skota’s biographical dictionary is that it was written in a

journalistic style for current news value that sought to attract readers’ attention by

including anecdotes and other items of human interest. It did not detail the motives

that pushed individuals into businesses and the context in which traders operated and

many other details. Shortly after the publication of Skota’s work, Ray Phillips

provided another account of African entrepreneurship. He reported that only two or

three hundred retailers on the Reef were ‘keeping adequate books, taking inventories

of stock and keeping a check up on their businesses... wholesalers estimate that not

more than ten to fifteen percent of these men are making a living out of their shops.

19

M. Skota, The African Yearly Register, Johannesburg: R.L. Esson and Co. Ltd, 1937

11

Many are in debt...’20

The main contribution of Phillips work to our knowledge of the

early African urban entrepreneurs was his depiction of the conditions under which

entrepreneurs operated. In his understanding, the weaknesses of African entrepreneurs

were the lack of management skills and capital. Morever, he was mainly interested in

how Africans adjusted to urban life. He explored different aspects of African lives in

the city which included economic and social conditions, health, morals, and religious

and cultural difficulties that hindered adjustment to city life. This makes it difficult for

the book to be used for analytical purposes in this study. From the 1930s to 1960s,

virtually nothing was written on African entrepreneurship. The reason could be

attributed to historian’s preoccupation with the effects of urbanization and

industrialization in South Africa. In his review of South African historiography, Visser

explain that, ‘Macmillan examined white conquest of the black peoples; the way they

were dispossessed, their resistance on the shifting frontier to white penetration, the

way they lost their lands and were transformed into farm labourers or poor peasants

living in reserves that were unviable.’21

Another leading historian at the time, De

Kiewiet developed an interest in economic history and economic change among

Africans22

but he never wrote anything on African entrepreneurship.

The period of the 1960s and 1970s saw a critical shift with the publication of a

number of important studies that explored the experiences of African entrepreneurs.

The foundation for these studies was laid by Leo Kuper who was followed by scholars

of the Eastern Cape such as Gillian Hart and R.B. Savage. In the study of African

entrepreneurship, Kuper’s work is perhaps the most important contribution. It is a

seminal work, it is comprehensive in scope and provides a sharp analysis of African

entrepreneurship. Kuper conducted his research in Durban’s urban townships between

1957 and 1963 where he collected oral testimonies from African entrepreneurs and

professionals. He focused on the political and economic role of African professionals

and traders, their wealth, patterns of consumption, lifestyles and moderating

tendencies.23

His work is devoted to the analysis of particular occupations or clusters

of occupation. Kuper ordered these occupations by separating them into two sections,

20

R. Phillips, Bantu in the City, Alice, Lovedale Press, 1938, p. 20 21

W. Visser, ‘Trends in South African Historiography and the Present State of Historical Research,’ A

paper presented at the Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, Sweden, 23 September 2004 22

C. Saunders and C.W. de Kiewiet, A History of South Africa and Economic History in Africa, Vol,

13, 1986, 323- 330 23

L. Kuper, An African Bourgeoisie: race, class and politics in South Africa, New Haven, Yale

University Press, 1965, p. xi

12

the intellectuals and traders.24

He focused on the dilemma that arose from the

government and noted that ‘for government, there is an insoluble problem of

encouraging African trade in African areas as part of the promise of separate

development and at the same time restricting its growth’.25

One important aspect that

Kuper’s work brings out vividly is the manner in which the apartheid system crushed

every semblance of human dignity, hope and entrepreneurial advancement. He painted

a clear picture of how apartheid laws that governed African townships inhibited

African entrepreneurial growth. Kuper’s analysis clearly demonstrates that he was

primarily interested on the issues of socio-economic mobility and freedom, and he

perceived social status and the relation of these concepts to South Africa's apartheid

racial system.26

His explanation was widely accepted in academia, he ‘acknowledged

that there was a proletariat in South Africa: Black people either did not own the means

of production, or had access to too little such productive property to subsist, and were

therefore compelled to work for wages.’27

This inspired him to look at the small

proportion of economic independent Africans and explore how structural forces

impacted on their prosperity. What is striking about his analysis is the manner in

which he focused on structural aspects that impacted negatively on entrepreneurial

advancement among Africans. Kuper concluded that there was ambivalence between

the promises of apartheid and the burdensome reality of control and domination. He

saw the occupation of trade as introducing a different type of tension within the

structure of South African society and its dominant ideology.28

Kuper’s influential study was taken further by scholars of the Eastern Cape scholars.

First among these scholars was Savage29

who conducted research in the rural Ciskei

(the former Eastern Cape Bantustan in the district of Keiskamashoek and Middledrift).

While much was known about rural Eastern Cape and its colonial history, very little

was known about African entrepreneurship in the province. Savage sets out to fill

what could be perceived as gap in the study of African entrepreneurship. His work

24

Ibid, p. xii 25

Ibid, p. xiv 26

L. Kuper, An African Bourgeoisie: race, class, p. xiv 27

L. Kuper, quoted in J. Seeking, The Rise and Fall of the Weberian Analysis of Class between 1949

and the early 1970s, Working Paper for Centre for Social Science Research, University of Cape Town,

2000, p. 9 28

L. Kuper, An African Bourgeoisie 29

R. B. Savage, A Study of Bantu Retail Traders in Certain Areas of Eastern Cape, Occasional Paper

No.9 Institute of Social and Economic Research, Grahamstown, Rhodes University, 1966

13

describes legislation that governed African entrepreneurship, administrative actions

and procedures and the distribution of retailers.30

His main argument was that African

entrepreneurs were restricted by severe apartheid structural limitations, and his

contribution is based on the manner in which he conducted surveys, which measured

the problem and progress of African entrepreneurship.31

He further argued that despite

severe limitations with which Africans were confronted, they made progress in

establishing their own businesses. After Savage published his work, Hart, who also

studied the rural Eastern Cape, embarked on an entrepreneurial research project. She

examined the development of African-owned enterprises and the nature of obstacles

with which African entrepreneurs had to contend.32

Hart concludes that the apartheid

structural policies suppressed the growth of African business in South Africa. Both

Savage’s and Hart’s work focus centrally on the emergence of local commercial

enterprises, particularly shops and their changing economic profile in the rural Eastern

Cape. Their main contribution is based on the fact that the study of rural

entrepreneurship had seldom been treated with an adequate emphasis on African

economic progress and problem, or with sufficient regard to apartheid institutional

structures. These scholars arguably provided the first comprehensive and accurate

account of the rural entrepreneurs, the changing economic opportunities for African

traders their problems, as well as achievements. Their emphasis on the rural

entrepreneurial aspects is related to the main trend of apartheid policy which

influenced it. They set detailed political contexts which throw a light on the origins of

Bantustans, their administration trends and African enterprise. They demonstrate that

the question of African entrepreneurship should not be dealt with as a separate entity

or a separate chapter, but as an integral part of the whole.

30

Ibid 31

Ibid 32

G. Hart, Some Socio Economic Aspects of the African entrepreneurship, Occasional Paper No, 16,

Grahamstown, Rhodes University, 1972

14

For instance, Hart argued that if there had been no structural obstacles flowing from

apartheid laws, African entrepreneurship would have automatically raised the living

standards of a substantial portion of the African population.33

Kuper, Hart and Savage

place the main responsibility for the failure African business an apartheid policies.34

The most outstanding aspect of their thinking on African entrepreneurship was their

analysis of African marginality and exclusion from economic mobility. These scholars

raised questions about the operation and progress of African entrepreneurs and the

issue of suppressive legislative measures on trading rights. Kuper’s contribution in

particular revealed that African trade was encouraged in the locations and in rural

areas, but was limited to petty trade. He demonstrated that African trading licenses

were limited to daily living necessities,35

with the aim of limiting the development of

large and well established businesses in the townships. He also pointed out difficulties

that arose from government administrative policy and the deficiencies of African

entrepreneurs. These difficulties included the lack of business skills, the state attitude

towards Africa, the lack business credit and educational facilities for African

entreprenuers, and the state unwillingness to support African enterprise. He

acknowledged that these deficiencies stemmed from discrimination which restricted

opportunities to acquire education, experience and capital.36

Kuper’s work provides

an analytical platform that helps this work to analyse the period when trade

regulations and licenses were implemented in Evaton. It also helps this study to look

at individual entrepreneur’s administrative styles and deficits.

Apart from legislative constraints which were the core of their investigation, business

problems related to shortage of capital, inadequate business skills, and insufficient

return on investment of time and money became central to this discourse.37

Within the

broader context of social and political processes that affected African trade, they

explained how trading licenses discouraged large enterprises while limiting African

businesses to small enterprises. This scholarly focus was perhaps influenced heavily

by the apartheid socio-political conditions of the 1960s. It is possible that these

conditions made these scholars less aware or sensitive to earlier African experiences

33

Ibid 34

R. B. Savage, A Study of Bantu Retail Traders in Certain Areas of Eastern Cape, Occasional Paper

No.9 Institute of Social and Economic Research, Grahamstown, Rhodes University, 1966 35

Ibid 36

Ibid, p. 280 37

L. Kuper, An African Bourgeoisie: race, p. xi

G. Hart, Some Socio- Economic Aspects, R. B. Savage, A Study of Bantu Retail Traders

15

when African entrepreneurship flourished. For the purpose of this thesis, their work is

not useful for analysing the earlier period of entrepreneurial development in Evaton. It

only served as a valuable analytical tool in the later period of entrepreneurial

development when the Native Affairs Department introduced trade licenses in Evaton.

Perhaps the main shortcoming of this body of research is that it tends to focus more on

structural factors that hampered the African entrepreneurship, portraying it as fragile,

closed and rigid. In contrast to their findings, this thesis examines the agency of local

traders by indicating that African entrepreneurship in Evaton was flexible, responsive

to opportunities and initially free of regulatory measures that prevented economic

advancement. Geographically, their research was confined to rural African homelands

and municipal-controlled urban settlements. They overlooked the potential for

entrepreneurial growth that freehold settlements offered and the fact that in those areas

which were out of their study scope, African enterprises were not subject to the same

formal rules such as contracts, licensing, inspection, reporting and taxation. Moreover,

this body of literature tended to concentrate on goods and services that served the

needs of local residents and failed to note that some of the entrepreneurs’ businesses

were not positioned to serve fellow Africans. This was the case with local women

hawkers who supplied whites in Johannesburg with foodstuffs. It also neglected the

role of women in African entrepreneurship.

An outstanding contribution was made by historians of Natal who revealed how in the

last quarter of the nineteenth century and in the early twentieth century, African

traders had prospered. Norman Etherington has shown that African Christian converts

in the Natal colony ‘had not only established a flourishing peasant economy but had

also embarked upon entrepreneurial capitalistic ventures on a significant scale.’38

In a

similar vein, Paul La Hausse has shown how in the early 1900s, African traders from

rural areas entered Durban on five day passes to conduct lucrative businesses.39

Also

Sheila Meintjes has revealed how Africans in Edendale enjoyed a degree of success as

farmers and entrepreneurs in the colonial economy and that their competitiveness was

38

N. Etherington, ‘African Economic Experiments in Colonial Natal 1845-1880,’ African Economic

History, No. 5, 1978, p. 1 39

P. La Hausse, ‘The Cows of Nongoloza: Youth Crime and Amaliata in Durban 1900-1936,’ Journal

of Southern African Studies, Volume 16, 1990, pp.79-111

16

increasingly seen as a threat to the success of the white colonial gentry.40

This

literature contributed to our understanding of African economic prosperity as it drew

very heavily on official records. For the purpose of this thesis this body of literature is

useful, especially because of the insightful analyses of the pre-trade license and

regulation period in Evaton. The usefulness of this literature is based on the premises

that the focus of Natal scholars covers earlier periods when African entrepreneurship

flourished in Natal. Theoretically speaking, this literature was published during the

late 1980s and 1980s when scholarly attention began to shift focus from the

narrowness of political history to the Marxist approach that advocated the shift in

account of politics from the state to society.41

During this period books that

approached history from below were published. These publications sets of themes

around which the revisionist discourse had coalesced - they also mapped out the

terrain for future research and writing that this study pursue.

From the late 1980s a new wave of research on African business was published. This

research built on the previous body of work. It is apparent that this literature was

influenced by anti-apartheid struggle and thus explained connection between early

entrepreneurs and political movements. Perhaps the most insightful contribution to

this body of literature was undertaken by Alan Cobley whose main focus was in the

locations which were subjected to varied forms of municipal control. Cobley’s42

contribution demonstrated how the struggle for trading rights promoted political

consciousness among African traders which allowed them to view their own success

as contributing to the upliftment of their people. His main argument was that many

Africans entrepreneurs were drawn to politics by the struggle for trading rights and

recognition from white municipalities in African townships.43

His main focus was on

municipal settlements and is applicable to the analysis of the later period of

entrepreneurial development in the freehold areas of Evaton, when local entrepreneurs

40 S. Meintjes, Edendale 1850-1906: A case study of rural transformation and class formation in an

African Mission in Natal, Unpublished PhD Thesis, 1988

41 P. Joyce, ‘The End of Social History,’ Social History, Vol, 20, No.1 1995

42 A. Cobley, Class and consciousness: the Black petty bourgeoisie in South Africa, 1924 to 1950, New

York, Greenwood, 1990 43

Ibid

17

suffered similar restrictions that entrepreneurs in municipal-controlled townships

experienced. What distinguishes his analysis is the fact that he mapped out ideological

consensus between the larger political resistance and the struggle for trading rights

that aimed at achieving a fairer capitalist society.44

This was also noted by Paul Rich

in his study on Joint Councils and trading rights in Kroonstad, Orange Free State,

where he traced how the local white Chamber of Commerce opposed the issue of

African trading licences which they envisaged would encourage the drift of the

‘natives’ and the ‘farm natives’ into the location while increasing the rates of white

tax payers.45

Southall also contributed to the body of work on African entrepreneurship. His work

was inspired by the growing African resistance to the South African government from

the 1970s. 46

His contribution illuminated entrepreneurial struggles through describing

how entrepreneurs responded to official constraints that limited the growth of the

economic mobility of African entrepreneurs. He argued that the state-imposed

limitations were specifically designed to inhibit African entrepreneurs from

accumulating capital. This prevented Africans from developing into fully fledged

bourgeoisies. His work shared Kuper’s perspective when considering the notion of

social mobility. However, it differs by focusing on the response of Africans to official

policies by forming the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce

(NAFCOC), which aimed at representing the voice of African entrepreneurs.

Southall’s main contribution was to demonstrate the response of African

entrepreneurs.47

His line of reasoning was followed by Sheila Keeble who mainly

discussed how Africans went about alleviating these problems.48

Keeble argued that

the formation of NAFCOC was a response to government legislation. Her study

44

ibid 45

P. Rich, Managing Black Leadership: ‘The Joint Councils, Urban Trading and Political Conflict in

the Orange Free State, 1925-1942,’ in P.Bonner et al, (ed) Holding Their Ground: Class Locality and

Culture in 19th

and 20th

Century, Ravan Press, Johannesburg, 1989 46

R. Southall, African Capitalism in Contemporary South Africa, Journal of Southern African Studies,

Vol. 7, No. 1, 1980 47

R. Southall, African Capitalism in Contemporary South Africa, Journal of Southern African Studies,

Vol. 7, No. 1, 1980 48 S. Keeble, ‘The expansion of Black Business into the South Africa Economy with specific reference

to the initiatives of the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce in the 1970,’ Unpublished

MA thesis University of the Witwatersrand, 1981

18

detailed the formation of NAFCOC as an idea that originated from the African

Business League which was formed by Rev. John Dube and Selope Thema who

diverted the League’s intention into the setting up of wholesale co-operatives in the

1930s. For the purpose of Evaton entrepreneurship Keeble’s and Southall’s works are

not useful because they cover the period later than the era that this thesis examines.

In this literature, legislation and trading rights continue to dominate while success

stories were only addressed by Kuper who looked at consumption habits and style as

well as material possessed by African entrepreneurs in the township of Durban. Other

scholars do not present stories of achievement. As a result, their work concealed a

number of interesting changes and components of African entrepreneurship which this

work has unearthed. In terms of study areas, the work of Cobley, Southall, Keeble,

Hart and Savage is confined to urban townships and rural homelands. These historians

neglected freehold areas which were characterised by entrepreneurs who had strong

sharecropping or otherwise a strong ‘agricultural entrepreneurial’ background that

distinguished them sharply from the common municipal township traders.

The shift from sharecropping to entrepreneurship in freehold areas has been studied by

Bonner and Nieftagodien in their work on Alexandra. 49

These social historians briefly

demonstrated this economic shift among Alexandra’s farmer-sharecroppers. In a

similar fashion, Iain Edwards in his work on Cato Manor (which was locally known

among its African residents as Umkhumbane) recorded that sharecroppers from

Harrismith came to Mkhumbane to open up businesses.50

However, these scholars

examined the entire history of these areas, and they did not provide details of

entrepreneurial activities and its complexities. They only highlighted economic shifts

that were mentioned by some informants during oral interviews. Although the scope

of their work focuses on different historical aspects, their analysis is valuable for

mapping out the shift from agricultural activities to entrepreneurship in Evaton.

In a similar line of reasoning, Leslie Bank, 51

an anthropologist, has examined the

genesis of entrepreneurship in QwaQwa. His study provides us with an insight on how

49

P. Bonner and N. Nieftagodien, Alexandra: A History, Johannesburg, Wits University Press, 2009 50

I. Edward, Mkhumbane Our Home African Shanty Town Society, unpublished PhD Thesis, Durban,

University of Natal, 1989 51

L. Bank, Beyond the Bovine Mystique: Entrepreneurship, Class and Identity, A seminar paper that

was presented in the Institute for African Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, 1991, p. 4

19

rural entrepreneurs who accumulated wealth through sharecropping on white farms

opened up enterprises in QwaQwa. Bank argues that there is little doubt that they were

involved in the maximisation of value, although the primary value they sought to

maximise was not economic profit but autonomy.52

This implies that success in

business was a strongly desired goal among sharecroppers not only because of the

money but also because of the social status and freedom from the labour market.

Bank’s work is relevant to this thesis when considering the consciousness of Evaton

traders and their changing economic profile. His analysis has to be treated with

caution when considering Protestant ethics that emphasises economic success and

independence.

When reviewing literature on freehold areas, there is a general consensus that freehold

areas were areas in which Africans could hold title to land.53

These residential areas

consisted of a number of autonomous local authorities which managed their own

affairs without any municipal or government intervention. Freehold areas fell outside

the ambit of a 'native location', 'native village' or any of the other formal racially-based

components of the South African urban landscape. 54

This status qualified these locales to be exempted from the 1923 Urban Areas Act

which restricted African residential rights in urban areas.55

Property ownership in

these areas meant independence, self-worth and respectability.56

This distinguished

freehold residents from the rest of African society. Local residents included

prosperous rural sharecroppers, labour tenants and the educated elite. Many former

sharecroppers in these areas liquidated their assets in livestock and machinery and

invested in property and business. Recent research reveals that residents in these areas

were politically sophisticated and resisted the ever-enveloping tentacles of state

control over their daily lives.57

In terms of racial composition these areas were racially

52

Ibid 53

See P. Bonner and N. Nieftagodien, Alexandra, J. Carruthers, Urban Land Claim in South Africa:

The Case of Lady Selborne Township, African Historical Review, Vol 22, 2000, T. Lodge, Political

Organisations in Pretoria’s African Township, 1940-1963 in B Bozzoli (ed) Class community and

Conflict: South African Perspective, Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1987 p, 401 D. Hart and G. Pirie, The

Sight and Soul of Sophiatown, Geographical Review, Vol 74, 1984, D. Goodhew, Respectability and

Resistance: A History of Sophiatown, West Point: Praeger 54

Ibid 55

Ibid 56

P. Bonner and N. Nieftagodien Alexandra 57

See P. Bonner and N. Nieftagodien Alexandra, J. Carruthers, Urban Land Claim in South Africa, T.

Lodge, Political Organisations in Pretoria’in B Bozzoli (ed) Class community and Conflict: D. Hart and

20

mixed. Freehold areas occupy a crucial position in African urbanisation. For instance,

in the 1940s when many new industries were established, they accommodated wage-

labour tenants who were restricted by pass-laws from occupying municipality

townships.58

The autonomy of these settlements and their exemption from influx

control became a magnet that attracted many rural migrants to these areas, which in

turn made them overcrowded. The landowners in these areas were burdened by

housing bonds and most of them relied on letting out rooms to tenants. This was noted

by Bonner and Nieftagodien in their work on Alexandra.59

Similar features were

uncovered by Lodge in Lady Selborne where he noted that landlords were usually

elderly and heavily indebted and depended on their property for their livelihoods.60

Evaton shared a similar character with these areas, but it was also unique because of

its geographical location. Evaton was far from Johannesburg and other leading

industrial and mining centres that attracted a large number of workers. Unlike other

freehold settlements, from its inception to the 1940s, the residents of the area practised

subsistence farming, which delayed their transition to wage labour. During this period

Evaton was sparsely populated, and land was available for agriculture and grazing.

Human movement into the settlement and the surrounding areas was minimal. When

Mrs Ligertwood, a widow to Mr Adams, sold properties in Small Farms which formed

part of her farm where she personally practiced agriculture, she encouraged property

buyers to retain Small Farms as a farming area. This was recorded in the 1938 report

of inspection which reads as follows, ‘It is understood to be Mrs Ligertwood’s

intention to retain land for farming purpose the remaining extent of the property

bounded on the north by Young Road.’61

The locale was peaceful, clean and well

ordered, it was not overpopulated and there was still an element of reciprocity and non

- monetary ties among community members. ‘Evaton is one of the most orderly places

I know of in the Transvaal,’ said Sol Plaatjie, testifying to the Native Economic

Commission.62

It was different from Sophiatown and Alexandra which were

G. Pirie, The Sight and Soul of Sophiatown, Geographical Review, Vol 74, 1984, D. Goodhew,

Respectability and Resistance, 58

ibid 59

P. Bonner and N. Nieftagodien Alexandra, 60

T. Lodge, Political Organisations 61

National Archive of South Africa, File NTS 361/364, Report of Inspection at Evaton: Native

Township on 9th

September, 1938, 62

Native Economic Commission 1930-1932 UG, 22, Pretoria Government Printers, S.

Plaatjie’testimony ,1930

21

overcrowded. As early as 1933 when Johannesburg was proclaimed a white area under

the terms of the Native (Urban Areas) Act of 1923, Sophiatown and Alexandra

experienced a massive influx that led to the rapid increase of population.63 It was the

same with Lady Selborne in Pretoria which had 200 000 residents in 1960.64 Another

cause of the population growth in Johannesburg’s freehold areas was increased

manufacturing activities that took place after 1933. The consequent acceleration of

demand for black working-class housing also impacted on local demographics.65

Evaton developed a cosmopolitan character, but later than the aforementioned

freehold areas. Its over-crowdedness could not be compared to freehold areas of

Johannesburg which had smaller stands than Evaton. The settlement was 1300 morgen

and 45 X 30 square miles in extent, and, according to the 1938 survey, 1700 lots were

sold to Africans.66

It should be noted that more stands were sold in the 1940s. Edward

Nathan and Friedland sold 151 acre stands plot in Small Farms, and 71 houses were

built on these plots.67

Sophiatown, on the other hand, had an area of 260 acres which

was divided into 1,694 small plots, most of which measured approximately fifty-five

square yards.68 These numbers reveal a vast difference in sizes of these settlements.

Unlike the Johannesburg settlements, Evaton had built brick houses and rooms; it was

not interspersed with flimsy, ramshackle, corrugated iron and hessian hovels that

formed parts of Sophiatown’s and Alexandra’s landscapes. Physically, the area had

not decayed and it was not surrounded by white suburbs. It was bounded by

Quaggasfontein farm No. 10 on the south and Rietspruit farm No 91 on the east.

Perhaps more than any other freehold area in Transvaal, Evaton represented a great

achievement in African education. The settlement boasted Wilberforce, an African

Methodist Episcopal Church-owned school and college that trained teachers. During

the first half of the twentieth century Wilberforce was a leading school in African-

American spiritual music. Evaton was the only freehold area that was frequently

visited by African-Americans because of Wilberforce’s connection with America. An

important and far-reaching consequence of the presence of Wilberforce distinguished

the character of Evaton from other freehold areas. Above all, Evaton was founded in

63

D. Hart and G. Pirie, The Sight and Soul of Sophiatown, D Goodhew Respectability and Resistance: 64

T.Lodge Political Organisations in Pretoria, p. 401 65

Ibid 66

National Archive of South Africa, The Native Commissioners Report, File NTS 361/364, 16 April

1938, 67

Ibid 68

D. Hart and G. Pirie, The Sight and Soul of Sophiatown, D. Goodhew Respectability and Resistance,

22

the context of the Ethiopianist church movement which encouraged African

landownership where schools and churches could be built for the upliftment of

African people. The literature on freehold areas has contributed to our understanding

of freehold areas, but Evaton has added new unknown characteristics to our

knowledge.

In the 1980s, social historians sought to uncover the submerged agency of ordinary

people. The aim of this academic venture was to give ordinary people a voice that had

been silenced for many decades in the production of South African history. Some

social historians ventured into the field of community formation, and much of their

work revolves around community formation and destruction. Their explanation

derives even more explicitly from the theoretical insistence upon the nature of South

African social formation and the historiographical writing which appeared in the late

1980s. In Belinda Bozzolli’s volume on Class Community and Conflict, the

introduction examine how communities were formed and destroyed.69

In this volume

there is scholarly consensus reflected in the work of Jeff Peires, Patrick Harries and T.

Clynick70

whose works have contributed largely to scholarly research by showing how

communities are formed as a result of the maelstrom of human suffering.71

This

explanation is applicable to Evaton, a settlement that was produced by different forces

that pushed its residents to come and buy properties where they could settle. As we

shall see, there are many forces ranging from displacement to segregationist laws that

led to the formation of Evaton community.

These works also demonstrate that the destruction of old communities and the

formation of new ones varied with time and region and the traumatic experiences that

each community experienced. This variety produced unique pattern that these

communities represent.72

For example, Harries’ study has shown that the Makuleke

community of the Phafuri’s chances of survival depended on hunting and gathering as

69

Bozzolli (ed) Class Community and Conflict: South African Perspective, Johannesburg, Ravan Press,

1987 70

Ibid 71

P. Harries A Forgotten Corner of the Transvaal: Reconstruction the History of a Relocated

Community through Oral Testimony and Song in B Bozzolli (ed) Class Community and Conflict: South

African Perspective. J Peiries The legend of Fenner-Solomon, Lawyer in Stockenstrom District in B

Bozzolli (ed) Class Community and Conflict: South African Perspective, Johannesburg, Ravan Press,

1987 72

Ibid

23

well as the agriculture that was destroyed by forced removals, and that this terminated

the political control of chiefs.73

Clynick, on the other hand, deals with the destruction

of rural white communities that re-established themselves in the Lichtenburg alluvial

diamond fields.74

While these studies dealt with another geographical area and a

somewhat different set of circumstances than those that existed in Evaton, nonetheless

they raise several points that are pertinent to the discussion at hand.

The relevance of the literature reviewed for the analysis of this research is

multilayered. First of all, it provides this study with the relevant analysis for

examining the local entrepreneurship that was later constrained by the state

intervention in the 1940s. For instance, Kuper, Hart and Savage’s work is applicable

during this period. Their works serve as a valuable tool for the examination of the

local institutional dynamics that surrounds the entrepreneurial state of the period. On

the other hand, Bonner and Nieftagodien’s work on Alexandra assist this study to

investigate the influx of sharecroppers and migrant workers into the township. Their

work further provides an analytical outline on how the impact of newcomers changed

the social character of freehold settlement and land use. Bozzoli’s, and others scholars

of community formation enable this thesis to illustrate how historical struggles over

land led to the formation of Evaton community. Perhaps what is leading about

Bozzoli’s analysis is her theoretical construction which comprehensively contributes

to our understanding on how state policy impacted on internal complex set of

processes of internal structuring and development.

Methodology

Primary sources

As the research project was conceived, it became clear that a wide range of sources

would have to be used. These sources include oral interviews, private business

records, newspapers and government publications. Over the past decades, the South

African historiography has been enriched more by political biographies and the history

73

P Harries, A Forgotten Corner of the Transvaal 74

T. Clynick, Community Politics on the Lichtenburg Alluvial Diamonds Fields, 1926-1929 in B

Bozzolli (ed) Class Community and Conflict: South African Perspective, Johannesburg, Ravan Press,

1987

24

of the liberation struggle.75

There is virtually nothing on the history of local

enterprises. White officials did not notice the pre-1940s African businesses, which

makes it difficult to trace the history of African entrepreneurship from the Native

Affairs Departmental (NAD) records. In the context of Evaton, records that are

available cover trade license application letters of the 1940s. Before 1940, Evaton

businesses were not registered. They remained unnoticed by the Native Commissioner

who did not record local commercial activities. This study therefore found it difficult

to reconstruct entrepreneurial activities before this period, but the examination of the

Nhlapo and Xuma papers provided clues of entrepreneurial activities that took place,

though on a small scale. Primary sources that were valuable but did not address local

enterprises specifically were NAD and Peri Urban Health Board records that focused

on local administration and health issues. There is little in newspapers since local

entrepreneurship did not come to the public notice. Newspapers intended for white

and African readership did not report much on the subject. Other primary sources that

assisted in reconstruction of the lives and activities of Evatonians included oral

testimonies.

According to Jalloh, ‘business records of individual African entrepreneurs are

essential for the historical reconstruction of African business...these records include

business correspondence, bank statement, accounts and list of creditors and debtors.’76

It was really difficult to obtain primary sources from individual business operators.

Another challenge was to access pre-1930 records, as there were very few archival

sources that covered the period. Surviving records that are available which cover this

period comprised paperwork that addressed the Union government’s legal debate that

aimed at placing Evaton’s freehold status within the broader framework of the 1913

Land Act. The most helpful documents that are stored at University of the

75

H. Pohlandt-McCormick, ‘I Saw a Nightmare . . .’: Violence and the Construction of Memory,’ History and Theory, Vol. 39, 2000 P. Frankel, An Ordinary Atrocity: Sharpeville and its Massacre, New

Haven, Yale University, 2001. S. E. M. Pheko, The True Story of Sharpeville, Johannesburg, Tokoloho

Development Association, 2001 P. Parker and J. Mokhesi-Parker, In the Shadow of Sharpeville:

Apartheid and Criminal Justice, New York, New York University Press, 1998; D. Howarth, ‘The

Ideologies and Strategies of Resistance in Post-Sharpeville South Africa: Thoughts on Anthony Marx's

Lessons of Struggle,’ Africa Today, Vol. 41, 1994 pp21-28, R.A Reeves, Shooting at Sharpeville: The

Agony of South Africa, Houghton Mifflins, 1961, T. Lodge, Sharpeville: An Apartheid Massacre and its

consequences, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2011

76

A. Jalloh, ‘Reconstructing Modern African Business History ’ in T Falola and C Jennings ( ed)

Africanizing Knowledge: African Studies Across the Discipline, Texas, Transaction Books, 2003, p. 157

25

Witwatersrand Historical Papers are letters and invoices of Wilberforce Institute, and

the memoirs of Dr. Nhlapo. These documents helped this work to identify pioneering

families and to reconstruct the early history of the area. Other collections which

helped to trace families that occupied Evaton before 1930 were sourced from the

Xuma papers. There are very few documentary sources from which historians can

trace ownership and occupation of land in the period before 1930. These documents

are the list of names of a few owners who bought properties before 1930.

Other documents that proved to be useful were applications for trade licences found in

the National Archives under the Native Affairs collection. These applications applied

for general dealerships, fresh producers and mineral water dealers, butcheries,

restaurants, and green grocery shop licenses. Trade license applications are one of the

chief documentary sources from which historians can trace changes in the evolution of

local entrepreneurship. They provide valuable information with regards to legislation,

trading regulations, administration actions, and classification of retailers. They were

also useful in shedding light on entrepreneur’s economic and educational background,

as well as on the amount of capital that they had at the commencement of their

businesses. These sources also provide this study with a general picture of how trading

sites were selected and how a radius rule that regulated location and proximity of one

business from another was enforced. As official materials, these files demonstrate that

the burden of trade license applications was heavily felt by some applicants more than

others. They also reveal that in some instances there were irregularities during the

application process which required the intervention of legal representatives. A more

serious difficulty in the use of these records lies in the fact that local entrepreneurship

was not limited to retail enterprise. There were service related enterprises that existed

in the area, but these entirely eliminated service related enterprises and reduced the

study of local entrepreneurship to retail only.

The greatest challenge that faced this study was the lack of pre-1930 archival sources.

This gap could be attributed to the freehold status and the lack of government

intervention before 1930. Freehold status meant that there were no sociological

surveys and state general observations that intended to present a quantitative data in a

systematic order. As a result, there is little documentation on the way in which local

families or people lived. There is no information related to family size and

26

distribution, local businesses, demographic data, family income and classification of

population according to income as well as educational data. This lacuna made it

difficult for this study to collate data that demonstrate factors that influenced self-

employment. It also made it difficult to know how many and what kind of commercial

activities existed in Evaton and their annual growth rates and constraints. However,

the use of an oral history approach and a survey conducted for this study reveal a

variety of commercial activities, such as selling methods, purchasing power and other

entrepreneurial aspects that are examined in this project.

Oral history

A serious difficulty in the use of historical sources available for this study arises from

the lack of pre-1930s archival sources. This methodological gap motivates using an

oral history approach in order to fill this gap. Experts on oral history note that it is

necessary to use oral history when there is dearth of written documents.77

Therefore,

this study found it necessary to use oral history as an essential medium because of the

dearth of archival documents on Evaton. Historians note that the use of this method

should be conducted alongside the marshalling of social facts in the written records.78

From interviews that were conducted in Evaton, it is clear that the aforementioned

lacuna is perhaps filled. Like any other research method, oral history has its

limitations especially with regard to specific events, memories and the sequence in

which they occur 79

In the case of Evaton, some elders that were interviewed have

insights into what was happening in the area but they tend to confuse dates and events.

In addition, the memories of some of these informants are fading. For instance,

Dwight Seremi informed us that Mbhele had two cars, yet other informants recounted

that he had three cars. It was the same with Mbhele’s grandson who narrated that his

grandfather Motuba bought property in the 1920s. His dating is not accurate when we

consider that by the 1920s Evaton people were burying their dead in the cemetery, yet

Motuba’s grandfather is buried in his yard. This inaccuracy necessitated further

interviews and indeed new research; it also raises the question about memory and the

transmission of narratives that is addressed below. Unfortunately there is a lack of

77

P.Denis ‘Oral history in a wounded country, in Draper, J. A. (ed) Orality and Colonialism in

Southern Africa, Pietermaritzburg, Cluster Publications, 2003, 207 78

A, Portelli, What makes oral history different? In R. Perks and A. Thompson (ed) The Oral History

Readers, London, 1998, p.64 79

J. Tosh, The pursuit of history : aim methods and new directions in the study of modern history,

London, Longman publishers, 1991, p. 210

27

deed records that covers the period in which the Motubas bought property. Oral

interviews enable us to establish the period in which the Motubas possibly bought

property.

In order to reconstruct the early life of Evaton, the study adopted a life history

approach. Life history is a holistic way of understanding the lives of interviewees. It

covers the whole life of the interviewee from early childhood to adulthood as well as

work, family life and chronology. The reason why the research followed this method

was to reconstruct the history of Evaton from the memories of residents to try to

encourage informants not to leave out certain topic areas that are important. This

allowed interviewees to express themselves freely about their lives in Evaton. Many

informants reflected on the development of their personalities and their relationships

with other people and the area of Evaton. From life histories, this thesis was able to

gain an understanding of where families came from, what pushed them out of their

previously occupied to Evaton and what attracted them to Evaton, their socio-

economic status and why they ventured into entrepreneurship. It also helped this work

to get the sense of personal achievement, especially among the local entrepreneurs, as

well as social change. In the case of Seremi, Seshabela and other families, social

change is traced through their families’ shift from sharecropping enterprise to

entrepreneurship. Through life histories, we were able to gain insight into factors that

impacted on continuities and discontinuities of local enterprises.

For this study, 40 informants from different backgrounds, genders and social

occupations were interviewed. Most of them were born in Evaton and they have vast

knowledge of the area. The diverse backgrounds of interviewees provided this study

with different voices. The interviews were conducted over a period of three years from

2009 to 2012. They were recorded, transcribed and translated. Three to four visits to

every interviewee was undertaken. The follow up visits aimed at filling gaps and

clarifying issues. Usually, during follow up visits the informants would loosen up and

become comfortable to share more stories. and were free to tell more stories. In a few

instances informants would contradict what he or she mentioned in the first interview.

At the beginning of this project the researcher was introduced to Maisela and Tladi

Kekane who were interested in the preservation of local history which was long

overdue. These residents were born in Evaton and were attached to the history of their

28

area. As interested members of the community they wanted their history to be

documented. As a result, they introduced the researcher to different key informants

who also recommended other potential interviewees. In this regard, the snowballing

approach was used.

The involvement of the Kekanes in this project was helpful, but at times it proved to

be detrimental because of community factions that they belong to. Like in any other

communities and extended family units, Evaton community relations are dominated

by frictions that divide the community into different factions. At some stage, the

researcher would be told ‘so and so knows more about this subject but he is a bad

person’ or ‘I should be taking you to so and so but we are not in good terms.’ In some

instances, bitter relationships would be hidden and people who were supposed to

introduce the researcher to potential interviewees would keep on postponing, saying

‘we will go or I will talk to him (that is talk to potential informants).’ These

limitations were the most frustrating experiences that the researcher encountered

during field work. With an attempt to overcome these frustrations, the researcher

would go to interviewees’ houses without local people who knew them. He would

then introduce himself and explain why he wanted to talk to them. To some extent, the

researcher’s understanding of local culture and language became advantageous with

some interviewees, especially to approach and convince African elders. With other

informants, his origin as an outsider from Soweto was received with scepticism and he

was dismissed. However, the researcher kept on knocking on their doors until some

loosened up. ‘No one who has conducted oral history interviews has escaped the

question, ‘But how do you know it is true?’ The issue of veracity remains important

for anyone interested in analyzing oral expressions of memory in historical

research.’80

When local narratives were collectively processed with other narratives

cohere around the memories of dispossession and displacement. They were shaped by

emotions and deep feeling of colonial resentment. To a large extent local memories

are based on the experiences of an older generation, the founders of Evaton who are

now deceased. Most of the people interviewed were born after the 1920s, which meant

that their parents and grandparents who were intimately affected experienced

successive waves of displacement and dispossession. The stories that they related

80

J. Bordner, Power and Memory in Oral History workers and Managers in Studerbaker, The Journal of

American History Vol. 75 No.4 1989 pp. 1201-1221

29

were based on oral narratives that were transmitted by their parents and grandparents

at least a generation old. They never witnessed earlier events and the establishment of

Evaton but they heard stories from the older generation. This qualifies their

testimonies to oral tradition. Therefore, their narrative is partly reliable but it should

be treated with caution and suspicion.

Interviewees vividly recollect experiences of their parents and grandparents. Their

memories yielded extremely valuable insights into the development of Evaton as the

settlement. However, their insight does not eliminate the need to think carefully on

how interviewees went about organising and creating memory. What is interesting

about the Evaton memories is that they do not present details about life in Evaton

before the 1940s, but they do cover the reasons why their parents settled in Evaton. In

these testimonies, the origin of Evaton is organised into two different categories.

Firstly, the forces that pushed them to Evaton, and the structural repression that the

founders of Evaton experienced. And, secondly, the autonomy that they enjoyed in the

settlement and the manner in which locals reciprocated.

The stories stem from the fact that the older generation coped with their pain by

reminiscing with one another about the ‘good old days’ in their respective

communities. They comforted each other and shared memories about their pre-Evaton

farming and urban communities. For instance, sharecroppers were comforted for their

displacement from the rural land that they ploughed for decades. In Evaton, they

shared stories on how they were treated by some white farmers. These findings

suggest that individuals did not remember alone, but remember collectively. They

discussed the events of their experiences and formulated explanations of what had

occurred in their lives with other people

This is evident in the published oral testimonies of the older generation that were

conducted in Evaton in the 1980s.81

For instance, A M Mokale recounted how

possession of livestock among Africans was used as a measure of displacing them

from white farms. In his own words Mokale remembered ‘some of us sold them and

81

While going through the catalogue of Wits African Studies Institute collection at Wits Historical

Papers, the researcher was fortunate to come across the interviews that were conducted among the early

generation of Evaton, the residents who were born in the late nineteen century. These generations had

firsthand experiences of sharecropping enterprise and are the fathers of the present respondents.

30

some of us left Mangoloane with our stock looking for farmers that would accept us

with our livestock. I moved to Doringkuil just outside Evaton here.’82

Similar ways of

remembering were noticed by historians of the Cape Coloured community who were

forcibly removed from their respective areas to racially defined townships.83

Their

stories were nostalgic and dominate a community’s memory.

Comparatively speaking, Evaton offers a different terrain of memory production as

compared to the memory of the victims of forced removal in Cape Town. The

recollection of Cape Coloureds is dominated by racial harmony; many Cape

informants recounted ‘before Group Areas removals [Cape Townships] was a place

without racial conflict.’84

On the other hand, the case of Evaton is different

particularly from the recollections of the younger generation of former sharecroppers.

Their story is centred on economics, and it tends to celebrate economic independence.

The sense of belonging and racial harmony is missing in their stories - their stories are

full of grief, anger and resentment of the pre-1994 governments. Their dominant

narratives touch on issues of family fragmentation, jealousy, unfriendliness of white

farmers and the fierce environment that their parents experienced. This is apparent in

the testimony of the Dlaminis who absconded from white farms to save their lives.

Even though their lives seem to be important, from the Dlaminis testimony the issue

of cattle keeping appears to creates a sense of nostalgia. This narrative connects their

memory back to the white farms.

The experience of displacement and dispossession created a distinctive character that

gave Evaton a peculiar identity which was exclusively shared by residents. However,

if these testimonies are considered as they are without being questioned or validated,

there is a danger that they might divert this study and continue to address the broader

theme of dispossession and displacement. The study might retell the history of

sharecropping, a study that has already been examined. The dominant memory in

Evaton seems to steer this work in a particular direction. Perhaps what is more

challenging about these narratives when they are sifted, ordered, and verified is how

82

A. K. Mokale interview that was conducted by Thamsanqa Flatela in Evaton on behalf of the Wits

African Studies Institute, 12 May 1982 83

H. Trotter, Truma and Memory: The Impact of Apartheid Era Forced Removals on Coloured Identity

in Cape Town, unpublished paper Yale University (undated), A. Thomas, ‘It changed Everybody’s

lives: The Simontown Group Areas Act Removals,’ in S. Field (ed), Lost Communities Living

Memories: Remembering Forced Removals in the Cape, Cape Town, David Phillip Publishers, 2001 84

H. Trotter, Truma and Memory

31

they can be used as the product of the workings of memory for the production of

historical knowledge of Evaton’s past and how they can influence accuracy of the

historical information gleaned. Can they generate evidence about the facts of Evaton

past? How do they relate discursively to a wider politics of landownership that has

been a dominant political discourse during the apartheid period. The narratives tend to

be influenced and shaped by political circumstances of the time. When analysing the

politics of historical production, it is important to assess the magnitude of political

influence and ask ourselves the question, to what extent could these narratives be

placed at the centre of a history of resistance and its grand narrative.

However, Evaton interviews add new facts and deepen our understanding of how the

Evaton community was formed. Furthermore, they add to what was documented

about white farms. Since official documents are incomplete about the theme of

community formation in Evaton, there is no other way that this work could fill this

gap than to follow the oral history path. As a result of interviews, this work has

captured the frustrations and plights of the sharecroppers as defined by secondary

sources, but these sources do not tell us what happened to the sharecropping

community after their displacement from the white farms. In what ways did they re-

establish themselves as communities outside of white farms and what livelihoods they

adopted are sociologically significant issues that are raised. Now the question is how

these narratives influence the accuracy of the historical information. In what way did

pre-1994 popular political consciousness influence the content of these interviews?

Ethical considerations

In academe, ethics define the principles of right and wrong conduct in a respective

profession. It is a requirement of the universities and its different departments for its

researchers to abide to rules, responsibility and accountability. Depending on

specialisation, broad guidelines are offered on how individual researchers should

conduct themselves in the field. It is the responsibility of individual researchers to put

these principles into practice. Considering that the success of this study relied on

human data, there are issues of confidentiality, ownership and misrepresentation.

Regardless of the field of specialty or methodology employed, researchers are

32

required to vividly explain the purpose of their research to informants and other

participants. Before commencing with interviews, the researcher ensured that

informants understood the purpose of the research. In some instances, some

informants expected payment for the information provided, but it was clearly

explained beforehand that this work was for an academic qualification and not for

commercial gain. It was also stressed that they were not obliged to participate, and in

the process of participation, they had the right to terminate their participation. For the

purpose of interviews, informants were asked to sign a consent form. The researcher

explained the reason why the consent form should be signed and that was received

comfortably. As the study does not focus on sensitive issues, the signing of a consent

form was not received with suspicion. It was the same with the recording of the

interviewees: the researcher explained why he was recording voices and recording was

welcomed. With respect to the identity of informants the researcher explained that if

they did not want their names to be mentioned in the thesis, pseudonyms could be

used. Almost hundred percent of participants agreed that the researcher could use

their names. For them, the use of real names was important; they saw it as

representative of their voices. They articulated that ‘this is our history when our names

appear in this work our grandchildren will be proud of us as story tellers’

The chapter outline

The thesis is divided into four chapters. Chapter one is an introduction. The following

three chapters are divided into three different periods. Each period outlines its own

historical trajectory that is linked to the following period. In other words, the

structuring of chapters in this thesis has been influenced by the development of a

series of events and their relationships to each other. We simply cannot understand the

depth of the emergence of local entrepreneurship without capturing the period that

paved the way for its development. An examination of Evaton’s history shows how

the relationship between different periods has assumed different shapes at different

times in response to changing circumstances that gave birth to local enterprise.

Chapter two

This section covers the early period of Evaton’s development, the people who founded

the area, and its local economy that was based on subsistence farming and its social

33

relations. This chapter contributes a necessary background that allows this work to

make sense of the following chapters that examine different facets of Evaton’s social

and economic development that incorporate the aspect of local entrepreneurship.

Chapter three

This chapter focuses on the circumstances that led to the collapse of subsistence

farming and the emergence of local entrepreneurship. One of the circumstances was

the arrival of newcomers which led to the demands for new services. The question that

this section attempts to answer is how these circumstances triggered the old

entrepreneurial habit among the former sharecroppers and independent farmers and

what kind of enterprises emerged during this period that were free of regulations.

Chapter four

This chapter explores the shift from unregulated enterprises to regulated commercial

activities. It reveals how the introduction of entrepreneurial regulatory measures was

intertwined with complaints of the Evaton Health Committee on health hazards that

Africans and their livestock caused in the area. It also reveals how the impact of

sanitary discussions served as the point of government’s entry into Evaton life through

the introduction of trade licenses and regulations and what impact licensing had on

local entrepreneurship.

34

Chapter 2

The origins and character of Evaton

Introduction

The legal victory of Edward Tsewu permanently altered the face of African

landownership in the Transvaal. Africans could buy land and register properties in

their own names. All Africans wishing to begin a new life and make Evaton their

home were welcome. By 1905, the settlement acquired a status of being a freehold

settlement, and also became an important African educational and religious centre for

Africans in the Transvaal. Evaton provided local resident’s space as a defence

mechanism against demands made on them by the industrial revolution and how their

struggle against increased dependency in wage labour affects the shape of Evaton

community over time.This chapter deals with the origins of Evaton and its distinct

character. It could be said that the social aspects attributed to the peculiarity of Evaton

are not particularly unusual – many freehold communities across South Africa display

a similar fate. Possibly, this argument would be associated with the dichotomy

between the municipal controlled townships and freehold settlements, the question of

local control, use of local resources, land use and ownership, as well as relative

autonomy that residents of these settlements enjoy. The aim of this chapter is to

reveal that the distinctiveness of Evaton lies in its social composition, the personality

of the people who formed it, its economic history and the presence of the Wilberforce

Institute. In addition, the idea of Ethiopianism attached to Evaton’s origin makes it

distinct compared to other freehold areas.

This chapter is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the origins of Evaton

and the role of Ethiopianism in the founding of Evaton. The second section

concentrates on the first wave of residents which comprised of sharecroppers and

35

independent farmers from Natal as well as educated residents. The last section

concentrates on the period after 1913. During this phase the Union government

changed its political strategy towards African landowners which changed the pattern

of local purchase of stands in Evaton. This period experienced the arrival of the

second wave of newcomers who had to follow a tedious process when buying

properties. The final section of the chapter analyses local economic practices and the

socio-cultural practice of reciprocity that bonded the local community together.

The origins of Evaton and the role of Ethiopianianism

After the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), white colonists had acquired control of

African land. They owned and controlled much of the best land in different territories

of South Africa. The greater part of the African land occupied by white colonists was

acquired by the force of arms. In blunt terms, then, what took place during this period

was the militaristic occupation and subjection of African to a colonial regime. This

implies that the land issue was intimately bound up with the question of political

control and power. However, the colonial political imposition was not well received

by Africans - it was often resisted bitterly in different parts of the country. In Zululand

for instance, the defeat of amaZulu by the British was much longer and less obvious,

and more a bloody process.85

Both the Zulu and the BaPedi Kingdom became the vital

obstacle to colonial control. In the Transvaal, the Pedi remained the ‘stumbling block

to effective British rule and a potent symbol of the possibility of continued African

resistance to colonial claims to the land and demands for labour and tax.’86

There were

of course, some land parcels that were occupied peacefully after the peaceful

agreement with African chiefs, such as the Griqua chief Andries Waterboer who

signed the treaty with Governor Sir Benjamin D’Urban in the 1830s.87

For many

African chiefs, these treaties guaranteed their orbit of colonists’ trade. In some cases

white land invasion was easily achieved by exploiting chiefdom rivalry that was

common among African chiefdom families. Among the BaTswana, the roles played

by the Boers and the British in exploiting these polarisations led to the Barolong 85

J. Guy, The destruction of the Zulu Kingdom: The Civil War in Zululand, 1879-1884, London

Longman Publishers, 1979 86

P. Delius, The Land Belong to Us: The Pedi Polity, the Boers and the British in the Nineteenth

Century Transvaal, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1984, p.1 87

L. Thompson, A History of South Africa, Yale, Yale University Press, 1990

36

War.88

These two Barolong branches, the Ratshidi and the Rapulana, were situated

close to each other and were involved in a prolonged struggle for land. This Barolong

War mark one of the factors that led to the establishment of the British

Bechuanaland.89

After the completion of the colonial conquest South Africa was now

divided into four provinces under the political control of the Boers and British

colonists. The Boers who rebelled against the Cape British government and trekked to

the interior gained control of Orange Free State and Transvaal. The British colonists

on the other hand controlled Natal and Cape Province. White Christian belief also

presented another feature of colonialism. ‘The missionaries wanted to prepare the

Barolong for exploitation in the industries – something that would keep them poor and

hungry to make them to become ‘slaves’ of the industrial world.’90

White Christians

felt morally superior to ‘heathen Africans.’ This notion of superiority was driven and

reinforced by the theories of racial superiority which placed white people on top of

hierarchy and Africans at the bottom.91

The introduction of Christianity to Africans

was considered by white missionaries as beneficial to Africans. The idea of racial

superiority in Christian mission stations gave rise to the new forms of African

resistance to colonialism. In the Transvaal particular, the new form of non-violent

resistance was spearheaded by the group of African clergy who seceded from white

mission stations, this group called themselves Ethiopianists.92

These leaders of the

independent churches added their intellectual fervour to political equation and in most

cases became leaders of the political organisations. After the Anglo Boer War (1899-

88

M. D Ramoroka, ‘The History of the Barolong in the District of Mafikeng: A study of the Intra

Batswana Ethnicity and Political Culture from 1852-1950,’ Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of

Zululand 89

A. Manson, ‘Christopher Bethel and the Securing of the Bechuanaland Frontier, 1878-1884” in

Journal of Southern African Studies, Volume 24, Number 3, 1998. 90

M.D. Ramoroka, The History of the Barolong 91

D. P. Curtin, The Image of Africa: British Ideas and Action, 1780 -1850, London, 1965 92

A. Odendaal, The Founders: The Origins of the ANC and the Struggle for Democracy in South

Africa, Pretoria, Jacana Media, 2012 P. Rich, ‘Black Peasant and Ethiopianism in South Africa 1896-

1915,’ A Conference paper that was delivered in the Conference on the History of Opposition in

Johannesburg, July 1978 N. Etherington, Religion and Resistance in Natal in A Lissoni et al (ed), One

Hundred Years of the ANC: Debating Liberation Histories Today,2012 J. Campbell. The Songs of

Zion: The African Methodist Episcopal Church in United States and South Africa, Chapel Hill,

University of North Carolina, 1998, G. Shepperson, ‘ Ethiopianism and African Nationalism,’

Phylon,Vol.14 1940-1956 Q.N. ‘Parson, Independency and Ethiopianism among the Tswana in the

late 19th

and early twentieth century,’ Collected Seminar Papers, Institute of Common Wealth Studies

G Shepperson ‘Ethiopianism and African Nationalism,’ Phylon

37

1902), they founded the Transvaal African freehold settlements in which they built

African controlled churches and schools.

As the nineteenth century progressed Boer Republics and British colonies introduced

different laws to govern the colonies. These laws provided the essential context in

which social and economic changes took place in South Africa. They shaped up

internal urban development that emanated from technological advancement and the

discovery of minerals. The new laws brought radical change in the daily lives of

African people, they also introduced new means of landownership. In what could be

called indigenous law that regulates African landownership, the chief was the sole

administrators of land. He or she allocated land within his or her district and once the

piece of land had been allocated the respective user who might be regarded in the

western world as the owner had sole control over it.93

Others wishing to use the land

would need to approach the new owner for consent. Land was allocated in perpetuity,

and was inheritable from generation to generation. After the conquest the land was

never transferred in ownership but was registered in the name of the Secretary of

Native Affairs as trustee, but this was never divulged to the `purchasers' in Natal and

the Cape colony. 94

In the Afrikaner-controlled Orange Free State and Transvaal, Article 159 of the

Volksraad Resolution of 18 June 1855 explicitly stated that no African landownership

was allowed.95

At the same time, Africans were technically without any land and were

dependent on the Afrikaner authorities to demarcate 'locations' for them.96

Whites

allowed Africans to live on the locations on condition of 'good behaviour', but did not

allow them to own the land with title deeds. Some Africans lived on white farms on

tenancy arrangements that were cemented by economic relations. After the collapse of

extensive pastoralism and hunting, which served as the cornerstone of the Boer’s

economy. Many Boers in the Highveld depended on the sharecropping enterprise. In

urban areas Africans were landless and were overcrowded in slums, public health as

93

E. Letsoalo, Land Reform in South Africa, Green Paper on South African Land Policy, 1987 94

W. Du Plessis , ‘Historical Overview: Evolution of Land Tenure and Administration System in South

Africa’ International Conference Paper, Orlando, Florida, 1996 95

Ibid 96

J. Bergh and H Feinberg, ‘Trusteeship and Black Land Ownership During the Nineteenth and the

Twentieth Century,’ Kleio, 36: 1, 170-193, 2004

38

well as safety was often seen in the light of class and ethnic differences. It is in this

context that the origins of Evaton could be located. Like many freehold settlements

the establishment of Evaton must be understood not only within the context of the post

Anglo-Boer War African acquisition of private land, but from the broader

understanding of a deeper colonial history of land dispossession and African Christian

secession from white mainstream churches.

Evaton was subdivided from Weldebeesfontein Farm No. 12. It was located between

two industrial towns namely Johannesburg and Vereeniging. The farm was first

bounded by the Golden Highway on the west, and the railway line that links the

aforementioned towns on the east. The farm was owned by Joshua François Joubert

and Francios Jacobus Johannes Joubert under a Deed of Transfer in the mid nineteenth

century. 97

The Jouberts sold the farm to Thomas Adams and Charles John Easton in

the 1890s before the Anglo Boer War (South African War) of 1899-1902. Adams and

Easton formed a partnership under the company of Easton and Adams, which

subdivided the farm into plots.98

These landowners were British officers who

participated in the war on behalf of the Crown government.99

By then, it was usual for

white landowners who suffered the economic effects of the war to sell their land to

Africans.100

During this time in the Transvaal most of landowners had gone

bankrupt.101

The economy of Transvaal was in a parlous state and Britain was hesitant

to become too deeply involved with the problems of the province.102

These

circumstances forced many white landowners to sell their properties. Among the new

owners were British generals who owned land in different parts of the country. Like

other whites, Adams and Eaton took advantage of the post-war setbacks and sold land

to Africans.

97

Surveyor General Office, Akter van Transport, NMS Staatsprokureur, Micro Filmed 3401/73/D3/b 98

National Archive of South Africa, Transfer of stands, file NTS, 1447/56, 3 September1949 99

Interview with Dwight Seremi, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 21 May 2011, Evaton 100

A. Classen, For whites only: Land ownership in South Africa in M. De Klerk (ed) A Harvest of

Discontent, Cape Town, IDASA, 1992 101

R. H. Davenport. Native Land Act, 1913, Black Sash, 1983 102

Ibid

39

They also capitalised on the land tenure case that Tsewu won in 1905, which allowed

Africans to own and register land in the Transvaal.103

After the subdivision of

Weldebeesfontein farm, the area was named Evaton and was declared a freehold

settlement. The name Evaton was derived from the combination of Eve Adams and

Easton, the owners of the farm, the blending of Eve and Easton formed Evaton. In the

context of South Africa, the freehold status of Evaton implied that the locale was not a

location,104

a ‘native’ village105

or ‘native’ hostel106

under the Native Urban Areas Act

of 1923. The settlement was not defined by this Act, set apart or laid out by any local

authority, nor was it under the jurisdiction of any urban location. Before 1936, Evaton

was not scheduled as a ‘native area,’ and the acquisition of properties by Africans was

made lawful by the Governor General under Section 1 of the Natives’ Land Act of

1913.107

The status of Evaton was not even defined in Section 35 of the Native

Administration Act No 38 of 1927.

Since the settlement was not set apart or reserved for African occupation, it was also

open for occupation by white residents. 108

The freehold status provided local residents

with the autonomy to build independent churches and schools without any government

intervention. Residents could also trade freely without being regulated, and could

own land an economic resource that was not easy for Africans to acquire. Evaton

provided a sense of belonging, a social structure where the previously disadvantaged

could begin to reconstruct an African identity and dignity. It is where residents

embraced strict social mores of the time, aspiring to middle class standards of conduct,

dress and speech as part of uplifting the African race. The formation of Evaton could

be located within the broader African struggles for land ownership and autonomy. The

struggle for landownership was waged by different African groups, which included

103

L. F. Braun, The Cadastre and the Colony: Surveying territory and legibility in the Creation of

South Africa 1860-1913 Ann Arbor, Pro Quest, 2008 104

In South African idiom a ‘location’ is an area demarcated for occupation by people of a racial group

other than whites. Geographically, these areas were located in urban areas and were under the tight

control of the local authorities under the provisions of the 1923 Urban Areas Act. Each location had a

superintendent who was authorized to administer local affairs. Usually, the superintendent was white

and worked with local municipal police who enforced access permit laws, lodgers permits, pass raids

and many other local laws. The police would check the number of residents who occupied houses and

make sure that there were no illegal occupants in the house. 105

A native village would be a chief controlled area under the tribal authority. These areas were found

in African reserves that were later called Bantustans 106

Native hostels were located in urban areas and were occupied either by males or females. 107

National Archive of South Africa, a letter from S. P Bunting, Attorneys Notary and Conveyances

written to the Secretary for Native Affairs, file NTS 361/364, 28 September 1931, 108

Ibid

40

sharecroppers, chiefs and educated.109 Africans who are referred to in the literature as

the modern elite. These groups responded to the land dispossession that took place in

the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries. Land dispossession and the entrenchment

of capitalist agriculture reached a devastating conclusion in the state’s relocation or

forced removal and policies in the 1950s and 1960s.110

The responses to dispossession

and displacement differed from region to region. In the urban Transvaal, particularly

in the Reef, this struggle was organised by clergies under the auspices of

Ethiopianism.111

The origins of this movement can be traced to its founder, Rev Nehemiah Tile, who

left the Wesleyan Missionary Society and formed the Tembu National Church in

1882. Tile and other members of the movement responded to the colour bar that

persisted inside white churches by forming their own independent churches under the

control of black people. For instance, Rev Tsewu, who led the Free Church Mission

in Johannesburg before buying property in Evaton, was suspected for having become

involved in the Ethiopian movement.112

He was also charged with mismanagement of

109

The substantial literature on the educated refers to this class of certified Africans as an ‘educated

elite’. The author will avoid using the concept ‘elite’ which is controversial and is maybe an inaccurate

characterization of this class. My argument is based on the fact that class composition of this group

changed over time depending on the circumstances. The term ‘elite’ obscures the extent to which they

were drawn from an oppressed and economically deprived grouping. For instance, the income of some

members of this group was increasingly inadequate to sustain their family's survival. Although this

group was educated, their qualifications were of little help to them in a period in which concerted

efforts were being made to suppress the development of the African middle class. The case of Evaton

explains this better where some uneducated residents like the Dlaminis who were traditionalist were

more affluent than many members of this class. Therefore, the author will avoid using the term elite

and will refer to this group as educated residents, professionals or certified residents. 110

W. Beinart, P. Delius and S. Trapido, Putting the Plough on the Ground: Accumulation and

Dispossession in Rural South Africa 1850-1930, Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1986 111

The term ought to be applied to some aspect of the independent churches in South African church

movement whose origins may be traced back to the 1870s. Ethiopianism was started by African

Christians who abandoned mission churches. They were later drawn to the AME Church by the promise

of education. Many left European churches precisely because of the limitations they encountered in

mission schools. For them the AME offered an ideal to the solution to the problem. Given their

exaggerated notion about African American educational attainments, it was easy for the early

Ethiopians to believe that they had at last found the key that would unlock the future of the race. For

further details see J. Campbell. The Songs of Zion: The African Methodist Episcopal Church in United

States and South Africa, Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina, 1998, G. Shepperson, ‘

Ethiopianism and African Nationalism,’ Phylon,Vol.14 1940-1956 112

Ethiopianism was resented by white government officials and missionaries. Missionaries were so

hurt and enraged by Ethiopianism that they rarely stopped to ask who specifically had defected to the

movement or why. This movement was characterized as menacing, and it was denounced in Natal by

government officials as calculated to destroy European rule. The authorities in Natal and some parts of

the Cape Colony prohibited it.

41

the congregation’s affairs, including funds ‘with a view to worldly gain’.113

With an

aim of investigating the matter, Mzimba was sent by the Presbytery of Kaffraria to

assist in dealing with the problems. 114

For these allegations the synod of Kaffraria

decided to dismiss Tsewu and replaced him with Rev C. R. Hamilton, a white priest.

African congregants did not receive the replacement of Tsewu by a white pastor well.

It was regarded an unfair judgement. In response to his dismissal, Tsewu established

the Independent Native Presbyterian Church, although he thought that the newly

formed church would reunite eventually with the white mother body. 115

By 1903, the Johannesburg congregation was transferred to the care of the Transvaal

Presbytery and Tsewu realised that the prospects of reunion were impractical.116

As a

result, Tsewu remained in Johannesburg and subsequently joined the American

African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), which was different from his

protestations about being Presbyterian. 117

It is clear from Tsewu’s experience that

there were many factors that affected African clergies. The most important factor for

the Ethiopianasits who submitted themselves to the AME church was access to land.

Because the church was rapidly expanding, there was a demand for land where they

could build churches and schools.

For many urban Africans in the Reef, particularly the educated, Ethiopianism offered

an avenue for the search for personal advancement. It also offered an avenue for

expressing vague feelings of nationalism by people whose traditional institutions were

being undermined.118

On the issue of land, Tsewu believed ‘that the Natives ought to

be allowed to buy land in their own names, and have title deeds in their own

names.’119

This struggle was of great importance among the educated pioneers of

Evaton before the area was conceived, and it united them. This struggle emerged from

the discrimination that existed in white churches and it broadened into more

fundamental issues that included economic and social aspects, as well as the land

113

G.A. Duncan, ‘Pull up a Good Tree and Push it Outside, The Rev Edward Tsewu Dispute with the

Free Church of Scotland Mission’ http: ngtt. Journal. ac.za 114

G. A. Duncan Pull up Good Tree and Push it outside: The Rev Tsewu dispute with the Free Church

of Scotland Mission, http://ngtt. Journals. ac.za 115

Ibid 116

Ibid 117

Ibid 118

Ibid, p. 9 119

Ibid

42

question. Economically, Africans were increasingly experiencing greater

impoverishment. Even those who earned more than wage labourers often experienced

greater impoverishment, either because they had no other sources of income or

because they were frantically trying to maintain 'civilized' standards. 120

This social and economic situation has been examined by many social historians121

who studied the circumstances that might have led these professionals to seek the

autonomy and respectability that Evaton embodied. More importantly, these socio-

economic circumstances played an important role in altering the consciousness of

religious professionals. This social class reflected powerlessness and helplessness in a

socio-economic situation that was increasingly repressive. This class began to lean

towards promoting unity among themselves in order to protect their limited privileges.

To some extent, this radicalised some of these professionals. Rev Edward Tsewu is an

example; the Native Commissioner of Johannesburg described Tsewu as someone

who was troublesome and made impudent demands for explanations from His

Excellency.122

Before dissenting from mainstream churches, African clergies seem to have played

less of a direct political role pertaining issues of land. However, discrimination pushed

church leaders into the political arena which focused on two issues - education and

land. 123

Educated Africans were anxious to seek higher education, and this issue was

later taken up by Rev Tantsi under the auspices of the African Methodist Episcopal

Church who built Wilberforce Institute in Evaton. They also rejected white control

and raised the question of land which, according to Campbell, ‘stood as the ultimate

emblem of European domination.’124

120

Ibid 121

P. Bonner, The Transvaal Native Congress 1917-190: Radicalisation of the Black Petty Bourgeoisie

on the Rand in S, Marks and R. Rathbone, (ed) Industrialisation and Social Change in South Africa:

African Class Formation, Culture and Consciousness 1870-1930. New York, Longman Group 1982. G

Balandier Sociology of Black Africa London, 1970 P. Rich, 'Ministering to the White Man's Needs: the

Development of Urban Segregation in South Africa, 1913-I923', History Workshop Conference Paper,

University of the Witwatersrand, 1978 122

National Archives of South Africa, A report from the Secretary of Native Affairs, File, SNA 287,

NA 2870, 1905 123

J. Campbell, The Songs of Zion 124

ibid

43

Their political desire for land was supported by sharecroppers who were increasingly

being displaced from white farms. During the post-Anglo-Boer war recovery in the

countryside, thousands of highly skilled sharecroppers returned to the farms to trigger

a remarkable economic revival. On many farms sharecroppers found old landlords

unwilling to accept their service back on their farms. Those who were accepted were

told to cull their herds or vacate the land.125

This situation was exacerbated by the

implementation of the Rights of Coloured Persons in Respect of Fixed Property Act

42 of 1908. The Act required tenants - mostly sharecroppers - to sign contracts, which

brought them within the ambit of law.126

This Act required that sharecroppers should

register their wives and children as servants in white farms. These changes were not

well received by many sharecroppers who left the countryside to towns where they

united with the educated elite.127

The solidarity between these African groups was

derived from their mutual desire for land ownership and an end to the racial

discrimination that they suffered at the hands of the white priests and landlords. This

commonality drew some of the sharecroppers into the religious ranks of the AME

church.128

This explains how, why and who formed the community of Evaton.

The examination of the origins of Evaton as a residential area provides a grounded

empirical study of the ways in which landownership was tied up in the various

historical dynamics that facilitated its establishment. These dynamics included a

number of factors that possibly led to the formation of Evaton as an autonomous

residential area. Firstly, the origins of Evaton can be attributed to an African American

influence that was perpetuated by a frequent transatlantic movement of people,

ideology and institutions that created multifaceted relationships between Africans in

America and South Africa. Secondly, to the resistance of the Ethiopian movement. 129

Thirdly, to the development of separatist churches that sought to own land where they

could build schools and churches. Finally, to the emergence of a new class of educated

125

Ibid 126

Ibid 127

Ibid 128

On sharecropping and the AME church see T. Keegan ‘Crisis and Catharis in the Development of

Capitalism in South African Agriculture, African Affairs, No. 4. 84. 1984, pp ? J. Campbell. The Songs

of Zion, p, 152 129

G. Shepperson, ‘Ethiopianism and African Nationalism’, Phylon, Vol. 14.No.1 1940-1956, pp, 9-18

44

Africans who were committed to non-racial ideals gleaned from Christianity and

supported by the theory and to some extent the practice of Cape politics.130

The AME Bishop, Henry McNeal Turner, who came to South Africa in 1896 to serve

the interests of the AME Church, formalised its connection with Ethiopian churches.

According to Campbell, Turner provided a vehicle for educated Africans to challenge

the Crown government on the issue of land.131

In fact, Ethiopianists such as Rev

Tsewu, Tantsi, and many others drew great inspiration from Bishop Turner’s action of

buying an AME property next to Queenstown. Before the arrival of the African

American Bishop, Ethiopianists had hungered for institutions of learning of their own.

In the Transvaal, they were perpetually haunted by laws that regulated African

landowners. Historians such as Feinberg and Bergh have contributed to our

understanding of African land ownership before 1905, the period before Evaton was

founded. In their paper they note that ‘Article 159 of the Volksraad Resolution of 18

June 1855 explicitly stated that all people of colour were excluded from citizenship

and the right to obtain land in freehold ’132

In view of these serious landownership complications, Ethiopianists who later

incorporated their churches into the AME were left with much less freedom with

regard to land ownership than their white counterparts. Their ambition of buying land

where they could build schools and churches was severely constrained by legal

restrictions that inhibited them from registering their land and restrained their ability

to expand their churches and school building mission. In the immediate aftermath of

the war, leaders of the Ethiopian movement played a prominent role in the agitation

for land. Among them was J.Z. Tansti who was by then a pastor of a large

congregation in downtown Johannesburg. He ‘badgered the Pretoria administration

on the issues [of land], demanding freehold right’133

Tantsi’s effort was fruitless, and

together with Rev Tsewu, D. H. Hlathi, John Mtshula, Marshall Maxeke, J.Z. Tansti’s

son James and dozens of Ethiopianists, raised funds to legally challenge the Crown

130

P. Walshe, ‘The Origins of African Political Consciousness in South Africa,’ Journal of Modern

African Studies, Vol. 7 No. 4, 1969, pp. 583-610 131

J. Campbell, The Songs of Zion, p. 137

132

J. Bergh and H. Feinberg, ‘Trusteeship and Black Landownership, p. 175 133

J. Campbell, The Songs of Zion, p. 153

45

government’s land tenure policy.134

The Supreme Court’s judgement set aside the

existing rule on the ground that since it had been established by a mere resolution of

the Volksraad and not properly enacted, it had no force of law.135

This case was

represented by Tsewu who responded to the government’s denial to register his

property in Klipriviersoog (the farm where Kliptown is currently standing) as a central

case that represented all Africans. The judgement in Tsewu's case made it lawful for

Africans to buy white farms in 1905. In Campbell’s opinion, Tsewu’s victory was

perhaps the greatest African political victory in the entire reconstruction period after

the South African War.136

When the Adams and Eaton Company subdivided

Weldebeesfontein farm, Ethiopianists began buying land from the Company at

Weldebeesfontein. JZ Tantsi walked from Phillip Street in Johannesburg to

Weldebeesfontein Farm No 12 in April 1905 when he heard that the farm that was to

be renamed Evaton was being subdivided into plots. He then bought a property where

he built the Lillian Derrick Institute, a school that was renamed Wilberforce in

1908.137

At the same time, African farmers began arriving from different parts of the country to

buy properties. Evaton also attracted ‘detribalised’ educated residents who acquired

their education from mission schools. Among the mission-educated stand buyers were

clergymen and teachers. Other occupations represented in this group included a few

court interpreters, insurance agents, nurses, bank clerks and bookkeepers.138 Similar to

Alexandra, Evaton appear to have represented a fair-cross section of South African

ethnic groups, particularly from the Sotho-Tswana and Nguni. For example, the

Tsewu were of Xhosa origin while the Mokgothu were of Tswana-Sotho origin. They

belonged to different church denominations but the most prominent one was the AME

church. They also came from different places. For instance, the Qupes came from

small towns of the Free State, while the Tanstis, Tsewus and Mqubulis came from

Reef mining towns where they were attracted by economic opportunities that urban

centres offered. By that time, these professionals had carved out niches for themselves

in the Reef. Evaton also received rural teachers like E. D. Mashabane, Matsolo and

134

Ibid, p. 153 135

The Black Sash Magazine, 1983, p. 25 136

J. Campbell, The Songs of Zion,p. 153 137

J. M. Nhlapo, Wilberforce Institution, Boikhutso Institute, 1947 138

Interview with D Qupe, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 12 May 2011, Evaton

46

many others 139

Mashabane taught in the rural Free State and was transferred by the

Methodist Church to Evaton after the sharecropping enterprise dwindled. Their

different geographical origins as well as diverse church denominations signified a

sharp contrast among these professionals. For instance, those who came from the

urban centres like James Tantsi, Abram Mgqibisa, and Samson Mtintso were affiliated

to the AME church and represented a large proportion of the Ethiopian movement.140

They were detached from white missionaries but connected to African Americans.

The explanation of how this association came about is examined in the literature on

the AME church in South Africa and the United States.141

However, this contrast was

overshadowed by common Christian beliefs, missionary teachings, Victorian

liberalism and the increasingly racial discriminatory legislation that was influenced by

the changing political, economic and social needs of the colonial economy.

Before coming to Evaton, the urban group was subjected to municipal laws that

included pass raids. Their presence in municipal townships was legalised by pass

documents. Like any other township residents of the time, this religious contingent

experienced the trauma of pass raids. Their personal autonomy that included freedom

of movement was limited because they had to apply for permits for almost every

activity and movement. They had to apply for a permit when visiting and many other

permits.142

Because the stands they occupied were leased from the municipality, they

had no right over them, and they could not alter or extend them without official

consent. It was no wonder that many professionals rushed to purchase land in Evaton

139

Today there is a high school in Evaton named after Mashabane who taught people like Barney

Ngakane in rural Free State. 140

The roots of Ethiopianism may be traced to the early years of the nineteenth century with the

struggle of the anti-colonialist Nxele and the development of an African indigenous theology by

Ntsikana. Both developed a religious synthesis of African traditional religion and Christianity which

‘demonstrate the turbulence in the symbolic world occasioned by the coming of the Europeans, It is

clear that Ethiopians saw a convergence of the political and the religious motives and methods.

However, in conceiving the reason for the founding of the Black Church as being primarily

missiological even to the extent of visualising the principle of the ecumenical dimension of Christian

mission, they were the formulators of the concept of Pan-Africanism. They preached that the church in

colonial South Africa and the entire African population should he so developed, freed and equipped that

it can go out and serve other people.’ For details see G. A. Duncan Pull up Good Tree and Push it

outside: J.R. Cochrane, Servants of Power: the role of the English speaking churches in South Africa

1903-1930 Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1987, G. Cuthbertson, ‘Missionary Imperialism and Colonial

Warfare: London Missionary Society attitudes to the South African War, 1899-1902.’ South African

Historical Journal, 19:93-114, 1987 G. Cuthbertson, ‘Cave of Adullam: Missionary Reaction to

Ethiopianism at Lovedale, 1898-1902.’ Missionalia 19 No.1, April, 1991 pp, 57-64. 141

J. Campbell The Songs of Zion 142

H. Bradford, ‘Mass Movement and the Petty Bourgeoisie: The Social Origins of the ICU leadership,

1924-19,’ The Journal of African History, Vol 25, No 3, 1984 pp 295-310

47

when the stands were sold to African buyers. The autonomy that Evaton offered lured

many urban dwellers to Evaton.

Unlike in the Cape, Africans in the Transvaal enjoyed less legal protection and socio-

economic circumstances were uninviting. It was worse in Johannesburg where Rev

Tsewu and Tantsi practised their theological profession. These professionals found

themselves faced with post-Anglo-Boer war socio-economic problems that

exacerbated their burdens as preachers and comforters of urban communities.

Economically, they often experienced greater impoverishment. Even those who earned

more than labourers often experienced greater impoverishment, either because they

had no other source of income or because they were frantically trying to maintain

'civilized' standards. 143

Among the educated residents and other inhabitants of the area, Tantsi was the first to

occupy Evaton when he purchased property in Bodea Road in 1905. As highlighted

previously, as important as the land issue was, the chief focus of the Ethiopianists

remained education. Evaton seemed an ideal place where the Ethiopianists’ lifelong

desire to build an institution of learning of their own could be achieved. With the help

of AME church donations, Tantsi bought a property where the Lillian Derick Institute

was built in 1908. By that time, some of his children, Adelaide, James, and Harsan,

along with a group of young African singers who went to England and America as a

choir with Paul Xiniwe, the choir master, returned from America as graduates with a

bachelor’s degree from Wilberforce College in Ohio. They influenced elders who

were already under the AME church to rename the Lillian Derrick Institute after

Wilberforce College.144

In other words, they excitedly believed that they had brought

American educational institutions and modernity to Africa. Lulat points out that

African graduates hoped that from its humble origins, Wilberforce Institute would

grow into a credible post-high school educational institution. However, the lack of

funds and the impact of segregation and later apartheid had a negative impact on its

growth.145

143

Ibid H. Bradford, ‘Mass Movement and the Petty Bourgeoisie, p. 298 144

Ibid 145

Y. G-m Lulat. United States Relations with South Africa: A Critical Overview, New York, Peter Lang

Publishers, 2008, p. 441

48

The Tantsi family was one of the most prominent families in the early days of Evaton,

owning a stand in Bodea Road not far from Tsewu’s home, as well as Wilberforce

Institute. Originally, the Tantsis were from Pretoria but their professional engagement

at Wilberforce and their attachment to the AME church made them become part of the

Evaton community,146

and constituted the first contingent of families who bought

properties. After establishing the Institute, Rev J.Z. Tantsi who was pre-occupied by

missionary work in Johannesburg, left his son, Dr. James Yapi Tantsi, an American

graduate and the first principal of Wilberforce, to occupy his property in Evaton. The

administrative demands of the AME which was growing rapidly forced James, who

had succeeded his father at Wilberforce, to reluctantly relinquish the principal’s post

at the Institute for the pulpit. His educational background and sincerity, as well as

ecclesiastical influence over his colleagues increased until the AME church decided to

appoint him as general superintendent of the church in the Transvaal. During his term

as superintendent, the younger Tantsi bought stands in different freehold areas of the

Transvaal for the expansion of the AME church.147

He collaborated with the Maxekes,

together they bought property in Kliptown where they built the church. They also

acquired land in Boksburg where Marshal Maxeke died in the late 1920s. James gave

his principal’s post to his brother Harsan who only served less than a year in 1909. He

was succeeded by Henry Msikinya, also a resident of Evaton and an American

graduate who took over and became the Institute’s principal until 1912.148

After a

short illness, Henry died in 1912 and was buried in Number I cemetery, Evaton.

The Tsewus also shared a similar status in the area. He was respected by neighbours

not only as a clergman but for his achievement in regards to the land issue. Among the

early educated families who came to Evaton after 1908 were the Qupes, Makhenes,

Mokgothus,149

and the parents of David Opperman who became a teacher in Ohlange

in 1915 and later the principal of Wilberforce. Opperman was a member of one of the

most remarkable families that contributed to the establishment of the AME church and

Wilberforce in Evaton.150

There were also Masizas, Motshwaris, Maxekes, Mgqibisas,

Matsolos, Mazibukos, and Magayas. The first few years of Evaton’s establishment

were the beginning of the great undertaking. These were very few residents, perhaps

146

Interview with David Qupe, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 21 July 2011. Evaton 147

T. D. Mweli Skota The African Yearly Register, Johannesburg R.L. Esson and Co The Orange Press 148

J. Nhlapo, Wilberforce Institute 149

Interview with Ben Tsotetsi, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 12 May 2011, Evaton 150

Interview with Ben Tsotetsi, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 12 May 2011, Evaton

49

because Evaton was not known by many aspirant land buyers. Due to the lack of

census documents, it is not easy to give an accurate number of residents during this

period. Suffice to say that the area was sparsely populated with scattered humble

buildings that served as family dwellings.151

The residents of the time were gardeners

and farmers while others kept livestock ranging from chickens to cows. Other

activities that took place during this period were public works that was done

communally which demanded the digging of pits for water, building roads, and

digging up toilets, and building churches that were also used as schools.152

Most of

them occupied stands that were close to the school and their houses varied not just by

the material used but by the square footage in layout and design. They also varied in

family size and house size. Most of the local houses had a porch or ‘stoep’ ‘where the

families could cool off during the summer season. It is where neighbours would drop

off, chat and exchange gossip.’153

Wilberforce as a pillar foundation in Evaton

A few years after its establishment, word spread about the establishment of the

African controlled school in Evaton and the availability of land in the area. Landless

Africans came in small numbers from other regions of the country to buy land. The

school was dedicated to the promotion of economic growth and a professional

opportunity for African children especially in improving technical skills that would

enable them to qualify for artisanal and other professional occupations. It is difficult to

know the real reason that prompted the Ethiopianist clergy to establish Wilberforce.

The obvious one was for their children to acquire education that addressed the African

needs. At that time, mission educated Africans increasingly found that their skills

opened up new employment opportunities, such as teaching occupations in different

schools. Another possible explanation was the fact that there was a lack of educational

opportunities for Africans in Transvaal. Unlike, in the eastern Cape, and the

Transkeian territories where more and more missionary schools were opened in the

nineteenth century. Transvaal, particularly the urban part had only one mission school,

Kilnerton in Pretoria. This school was under the Wesleyan missionary institution. At

151

Ibid 152

Ibid 153

Interview with Enoch Madonsela, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 13 August 2012, Evaton

50

that time, few Africans could go much further than Standard IV in the Transvaal. It

was only Lovedale and Adams College in both, the Eastern Cape and Natal that

provided schooling up to the level of the matriculation examination. Additional

education was generally limited to teacher training at Kilnerton. African students were

denied admission to the white institutions offering preparation for the university

degrees. At the same time, the government officials had long promoted white

education over African education and thus gave little funding for the latter, as well as

low priority. In the Cape, for instance teaching certificates granted were racially

divided and this generated anger among Africans.154

All these difficulties implied that

Africans could not get advancement in these schools.

Another reason was that they wanted a school that would produce students who will

acquire higher education, so as to be able to enter the ministry of the independent

churches. This was achieved when Rev Coan opened up RR Wright Seminary School

that was part of Wilberforce Institute. The institute offered African students secondary

education, a curricula in liberal arts, teachers training and vocational skills. The

institute was not merely a centre for imparting knowledge and skills, but it helped its

products to develop respect, independent thinking, and self determination. What

distinguished Wilberforce from other missionary schools was its educational

programme and social responsibility that took full cognisance of community needs

and life from which pupils came. Its immense influence in local social circle was

always felt. From its beginning, the school represented African reaction to the offer of

Western schooling, an effort that moved beyond the capacity of the mission churches.

The school became critical of several aspects of the colonial education, particularly

the ways in which it defamed indigenous customs as ‘savagery’ and barbaric. It

represented African pride and dream that lies at the very heart of the African

aspiration that was pushed by the conviction that education opens the door to success.

Although some Africans achieved education but continue to suffer discrimination

based on their skin colour. Wilberforce Institute continued to inspire Africans to

crave and embrace education as the ultimate solution. Its advocacy for African

education was based on the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church’s nineteenth

century doctrinal statements and publications. In these documents AME church

154

S.D, Gish A.B Xuma, African, American, South Africa, New York, New York University Press,

2000

51

leaders and writers explicitly stated that education was a necessary component for black

liberation.155

The institute was not merely a centre for imparting knowledge and skills,

but it helped its products to develop respect, independent thinking, and self

determination. Its curriculum was adopted from the Tuskegee model that emphasized

self-help and freedom from direct white control. The school curriculum was thickened

by the institute’s staff, the American graduates that reflected on continental problem

from the broadened perspective in their teaching. emphasised vocational education.

These graduates also advocated political quiescence on one hand but hard work on the

other.156

They were convinced that the struggle and triumph of African Americans

could inspire Africans in this country. Like its sister school, Ohlange Institute, a

school that was founded by Dr. Rev. John Dube at Inanda. Wilberforce Institute

epitomized Tuskegee. It stressed industrial education and African self help. For

Africans, the institution stood out as a shining beacon of hope for African social and

economic upliftment. Like its sister school, Wilberforce received wide publicity in

African press. This is evident in Umteteleli where there was always a column and

advert about the school.

In its early years the Institute was small with few funds and could not accommodate

its boarding students. It was under the sponsorship of the AME, which lacked funds to

pay ministerial salaries. Ministers fended for themselves, subsisting on whatever the

local congregation could scrape together.157

Driven by the spirit of self-help, local

residents, church and non-church members were determined to do all they could to

keep the school afloat. The homes of the Mokgothus and the Maxekes, for instance

served as dormitories and girls from all the denominations were accommodated.158

Unlike other mission schools like Kilnerton that was committed to educate children of

the Methodist adherents only, Wilberforce staff members believed that cultural

traditions and denominational identity could not have value above human

relationships. The school was committed to friendship and collaboration across

155

D J Childs, The Black Church and the American Education: The African Methodist Episcopal

Church Educating for Liberation, unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Miami, 2009 156

Y. G-m Lulat. United State Relations with South Africa: A Critical overview, New York, Peter Lang

Publishers, 2008, p. 441 157

J. Campbell, The Social Origins of African Methodism in the Free State, Seminar Paper delivered at

African Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand 1993 158

J. M. Nhlapo, Wilberforce Institution, p.7

52

barriers.159

The Wilberforce tradition became to a large extent the tradition of Evaton.

In fact Evaton was home to people working at Wilberforce with some families like the

Mokgothus and others associated with the Institute. For professionals who were linked

to the school, Wilberforce served as a point of entry to Evaton. For example, Rev and

Mrs Mokgothu, who were from the Free State, came to Evaton through

AME/Wilberforce channels.

Although the school was controlled by the AME church, it attracted people from all

over the Free State and other regions of South Africa. For instance, Boy Masiza

recalled that his grandfather ‘came to Evaton in 1906, he was from the Orange Free

State, he came when he heard that Tantsi was building a school and there were bigger

stands that were available in the area.’160

Masiza was father to Hamilton Masiza, one

of the initial groups of Wilberforce students who later graduated from Fort Hare

before taking up the principalship of the United Mission School in Kimberley in the

1920s. The Masizas were Catholics and not Ethiopians or members of the AME

church, but their commitment to the upliftment of the local community propelled them

to contribute towards the building of the school. Masiza was a builder and a brick

maker. Along with Mr Motsolo, who was also a member of the Catholic Church, they

helped Rev Tansti and Tsewu to erect the first buildings of the Institute.

Rev James Henry Mazibuko was one of the founders of the AME church who also

settled in Evaton because of the school. He worked very closely with Father Mokone,

Charlotte Maxeke’s uncle who was the founder of the AME church. He was the first

minister of the AME church in Evaton.161

When he arrived he bought property not far

from Rev Tsewu.162

The geographical clustering of the founders of Wilberforce

indicates that the part of Evaton that was next to Wilberforce used to be occupied by

educated residents who were also attached to the Institute. Considering that Evaton

was sparsely populated and the number of educated families was almost twenty to

thirty five percent of the total number of the community.163

To be an educated African

or a priest in the first quarter of the twentieth century was to assume a position

159

Interview conducted with Motlalepule Chabaku by Vusi Khumalo, 5 May 2010, Evaton 160

Interview with Boy Masiza, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 12 October 2011, Evaton 161

J.M. Nhlapo Wilberforce Institute, 162

Ibid 163

National Archive of South Africa, Native Commissioner’s Report, NTS 361/364, 1938

53

associated with high status and respectability among African communities. By then

the number of educated Africans was low in South Africa. Many local African

clergymen who received ordination were excellent preachers, proudly associated with

internal church mobility. Teaching on the other hand, demanded high levels of

academic proficiency, ensuring that teachers were able to pass a thorough examination

of the Royal curriculum. The failure of the central government to commit itself in

local education meant that local teachers had to work independently without state

support and resources. Their ability to work independently sustained them a

respectable identity in Evaton.164

In this community a teacher was a mediator of a particular construction of knowledge,

attitudes and dispositions in the context of the realities of a small settlement of the

Vaal. The presence of educated contingent cultivated a distinct social character and

identity that distinguished Evaton from other freehold settlements. Evaton became one

of the freehold settlements in the Transvaal with large number of educated residents.

Self-sufficiency, economic independence and African unity had been one of the most

valued ideologies among this group. The principles that personified local educated

residents were nurtured by Christian teachings and the ideology that underpin the

foundation of Ethiopianism. These principles had the weightiest influence on the later

generation of Evaton residents that played important role towards the formation of Pan

African Congress (PAC). The presence of large proportion of educated Africans

reveal that class divisions were more pronounced in Evaton, and were associated with

occupations of ministers of religion, teachers and clerks. The local class composition

consisted of the former sharecroppers, educated Africans and former independent

farmers. The increasing segregating practices in the post Anglo Boer War played an

important role in connecting these classes. And they were tightly connected by a

common urgent need for land. At the early stage of Evaton’s development, land was

an overriding issue which prompted these classes to redefine themselves in the new

settlement. Although land issue bonded them together but life experiences, social and

political aspirations were different among these classes. The educated class identified

with a new political initiative and its members like Henry Ngcayiya, the Maxekes,

164

Ibid

54

Tantsi and many others became unquestionably influential in the formation of the

South African National Native Congress (SANNC).

Spatially, the educated residents formed what could be defined by two sets of

dimensions, a common educational and religious background. Mr M.J Qupe, who

came to Evaton after getting a post as a commerce teacher, was not a member of the

AME church, but the influential role of the local AME church persuaded him to

convert and become one of the AME adherents. It was not only the Qupes who came

as adherents of European-controlled churches. There were others like Rev Faku of the

Anglican Church. Faku was from Pondoland and spent some time in Johannesburg

serving as a priest in Doornfontein before buying property in Evaton. His daughter,

Eleanor Faku, married Tolityi Magaya, one of the American graduates and the fifth

principal of Wilberforce. He succeeded Marshal Maxeke who left the school and

joined his wife Charlotte when they opened up a school at GaRamokgopa in the

Batlokoa region of the Northern Transvaal.165

Upon his return from the United States

of America where he studied at Wilberforce and Lincoln Colleges, Magaya bought

property and settled in Evaton where he became a principal.166

Magaya was one of the

pioneers of Evaton who played an important role in the development of Wilberforce

and the local AME church in Evaton. He died in 1924 and was buried in No 1

cemetery in Evaton.

The influx of the first wave of educated residents in Evaton was disturbed by two

factors, the promulgation of the 1913 Land Act and more importantly the outbreak of

the First World War. The 1913 Act was preceded by the formation of African National

Native Congress.167

This organization advocated for landownership, African economic

upliftment and the extension of franchise to Coloureds outside the Cape. It identified

politically with the British as opposed to the Boers. As early as the turn of the

twentieth century, the AME church was popular among the Cape Coloureds. The man

who was behind its popularity was Francis Macdonald Gow, a prominent member of

Cape Town's Coloured community and a leader of the AME Church in the Western

Cape. Gow was the father of Francis Herman who later became the principal of

165

T.D. Mweli Skota, The African Yearly Register, Johannesburg, R.L. Esson and Co. Ltd, 1932; T.D.

Mweli Skota, The African Who's Who, Johannesburg, Central News Agency, 1965. 166

J.M. Nhlapo, Wilberforce Institute 167

Ibid

55

Wilberforce after World War I and later the first African Bishop of the AME

church.168

Towards the end of the war in 1918, the school reopened and, in the same year, the

Native Affairs Department concluded that Africans could continue to purchase

properties.169

As indicated, during this period, the purchase of land was conditional.

The post-war period marked the beginning of a new chapter in Evaton’s history with

the arrival of more educated residents who bought stands in the area. This period saw

the arrival of Dr F Herman Gow who succeeded Rev Magaya as a principal at

Wilberforce Institute. Gow was from the Cape, the son of an African-Caribbean man

who married a Cape Coloured lady. Gow was an American graduate of Tuskegee

Institute who settled in Evaton after being offered the post of principal in the Institute.

Gow’s administrative activities stretched from the school campus to Evaton. Along

with other educated residents, he was active in administrative matters. In the 1930s, he

worked very closely with Commissioner Bunting to form the Advisory Committee

that aimed at replacing the headman’s control in Evaton.170

Gow was joined by Simon Mqubuli who had spent most of his time working in

Klipspruit as a teacher before coming to Evaton. Mqubuli, who was born in Graaf

Reinet, Eastern Cape, received his higher education at Lovedale where he was

awarded a teacher’s certificate. In Evaton, he became a teacher and later the principal

of the African Independent School.171

Other families that came to Evaton during this

period were the Khumalo family who were originally from Natal. Rev Benjamin

Khumalo was a Methodist pastor who, after World War I, bought property in Evaton

where he settled with his wife, Johanna Khumalo, who was a matron in Wilberforce

during the time of Magaya’s principalship. In 1920, Khumalo’s daughter Angelina got

married to Dr. John Dube, the first president of the African National Congress. She

was his second wife and their wedding was held in Evaton.172

168

J. Campbell, The Social Origins of African Methodism in the Free State, Seminar Paper that was

delivered at African Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand 1993 169

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from the Native Commissioner to the Secretary of Native

Affairs on Evaton Administration matters, File, NTS 361/364 27 July 1930 170

Ibid 171

T. D. Mweli Skota The African Yearly Register 172

H. Hughes First President: A life of John L Dube, founding president of the ANC, Johannesburg,

Jacana Media, 2011

56

The deeds records indicate that many other educated residents relocated after the war

and it appear that most of these professionals were attracted by the expansion of the

Institute and its developed educational programmes. At the same time, the school

offered a Junior Certificate and a three year teaching diploma. The school also offered

trade and printing courses. Wilberforce insisted not only on academic achievements

but required students to spend some time doing manual work. It emphasised the

dignity of manual work, especially working with soil. Apart from academia, perhaps

the best advertising medium for the Institute was music which was recorded by

gramophone companies.173

Wilberforce became popular for its African American

spiritual music and those who were far away from the Institute, whenever they needed

special African American spiritual music, turned to Wilberforce. These songs include

‘Sanibona’, a song composed by RT Caluza.174

Wilberforce students were exposed to

the violin, piano and voice lessons, activities that gave them an opportunity to be

known and see other parts of the country. At this early stage in Wilberforce’s history,

ex-choir singers like Mrs Maxeke were active in teaching music to the learner group

of Masiza and Opperman.

By this time, the school’s infrastructure was also developing. For instance, new

buildings like Eliza Gregg Hall was built and the school facilities were expanding.

Additionally the student body and teaching staff increased. On his 1919 visit, the Pass

Officer of Vereeniging reported:

I find it is divided into two sections for educational purpose, consisting of primary school in

which there is 12 boarders and 36 day scholars (54 boys and 44 girls)…The Primary School

is held in the separate building about 150 yards from the main building, there are four teachers

two men and two women who have the work divided between them in 7 classes, under

personal supervision of ET Magaya who is also the principal, people are from all parts

of the Union175

173

J. M. Nhlapo Wilberforce Institution, 1947 Unpublished Manuscript, J.M. Nhlapo Papers, A1006

Historical Papers 174

Sanibona, ILAM CR3735, Wilberforce Institute Singers, 1940, Digital Innovation South Africa,

University of KwaZulu Natal 175

Pass Officer report on his visit to Wilberforce Primary Section, 5 December 1919 NTS 373/56

National Archives of South Africa

57

This was the primary school report that was attached to the institution. This report

sheds light on the expansion of the school. Another strong marketing force that

contributed to the arrival of more educated residents was the school’s connection with

African Americans who visited the school regularly. Subsequently, the changing

character of this school attracted the best highly qualified teachers who also bought

properties in Evaton. One of the prominent teachers and a mother who came to Evaton

after the war was Mrs Eva Morake. Morake studied at two American Universities:

Wilberforce University, where she acquired a junior degree in Humanities, and

Columbia University, where she graduated with a Masters of Arts. After graduating

from the latter, she was offered a post in Columbia University that would have

required her to remain and teach there. However, because of her devotion to her

people’s advancement, she decided to come back and work in Evaton.176

Morake was

the first African woman to receive a Masters degree from Columbia University and

she was also the first in South Africa. In her letter to Dr Xuma, she wrote ‘

In spite of many attractive government offers for teaching or supervision, at various

provinces and protectorates…I accepted Bishop’s Sims offer …as Principal of

Wilberforce…Comparatively I knew I was making sacrifice, but said that in the full

belief I was not only doing partriotic duty but was also making my small contribution in

the cause and advancement of African Methodism in South Africa177 .

This letter proves that after the First World War both Evaton and Wilberforce Institute

received committed professionals who were not only interested in advancing their

personal status but also that of Africans. Evaton was characterised by the zeal for

economic independence and the spirit of self-advancement through education. Its

social character encouraged the local community to seek ways of making a living

without being dependent on wage labouring. The presence of Wilberforce as an

African institution that symbolised African pride had a long term impact in the history

of Evaton. It encouraged local children to search for education as the means of success

achieving and racial progress. The school was seen as an institution that would meet

the skills that African people needed to survive. Founders of the school improvised

and devised innovative means to improve African education.

176

Historical Papers, University of the Witwatersrand, A letter written by Eva Morake to Dr A.B.

Xuma, Xuma Papers, 10 March 1937 177

Ibid

58

Most of the educated residents were in fact born after the 1850s, which meant that

their lives were intimately affected by colonialism. They personally witnessed the

discovery of gold and how it transformed the life of Africans into economic

dependency. They observed how an African labour force was created on a scale that

left little room for African economic prosperity. They suffered different forms of

segregation. As a result, they saw education and self-employment as the only means of

avoiding the ranks of common labourers. The common suffering that local residents

experienced in different geographical locations at the hands of white clergy,

superintendents and other white officials created a social mechanism which promoted

solidarity in this community. It is possible that these experiences offered a political

ideology that manifested itself later during the bus boycott of 1957 and the role that

Evaton played in the formation of political movements such as the Pan African

Congress.

The community appeared to be a troubled community that was regarded as prone to

protests. This was evident during oral interviews when interviewees expressed their

views on the land dispossession and displacement that the pioneers suffered. This was

confirmed by the Native Commissioner’s report which highlighted the complaints of

industrialists in the area who were unwilling to employ people of Evaton because of

their radical politics.178

Evaton represented a political stance that reflected on a

broader political canvas. This was evident when some residents and teachers of

Evaton like the Maxekes, Tantsi, and Ngcayiya actively took part in the formation of

the South African Native National Congress in 1912.

African landless farmers and the new settlement of Evaton

The African landless farmers who came to establish themselves as subsistence farmers

in Evaton were sharecroppers from the Transvaal and Orange Free State. There were

also groups of Oorlams and independent farmers from Natal. The overwhelming

majority of these groups were sharecroppers. These newcomers arrived in the early

stage of Evaton with clear ambitions about their role in the area. Their aim was to

178

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from the Native Commissioner to the Director of Native

Labour File 361/363, undated

59

practice agriculture and re-establish themselves as commercial farmers. The group of

sharecroppers who bought properties in Evaton was divided into different categories

based on their origins and geographical locations. For example, some were BaTswana,

while others were BaSotho and abeNguni. Among the BaTswana were the BaKgatla

BaMakau and other small groups of the Tswana language groups. The Basotho were

BaKwena, BaFokeng and others. Among the beNguni were amaZulu, amaXhosa and

amaSwazi. These groups were pushed by different socio-economic and political

reasons to venture into sharecropping.179

These farmers shared the similar experience

of having been squeezed off white farmland which had provided them with a means of

livelihood. In addition, they experienced moving from one farm to another with the

aim of searching for opportunities of accumulation under the patronage of a white

landlord. One of the most significant common aspects which bonded this group was

the fact that before the establishment of Evaton in 1905, they had no property rights.

Some lived as squatters or renters in private farms, and they were legally debarred

from holding properties in their own names in both the Free State and Transvaal.180

When these groups arrived, Evaton was in its embryonic stage and there was not much

happening. Pioneers were simply establishing themselves, and the construction and

clearing of the fields remained the major focus. Nobody doubted that the task of

establishing Evaton as a settlement was daunting. It demanded committed, industrious

and energetic individuals. In its early stage of development, local residents had to lay

out gardens which would be a source of nourishment for their families, erect houses,

dig toilet pits and wells, open up roads, fence their properties and select suitable

pastures for their herds.181

This process included whatever could defray the cost of the

establishment. The pioneers not only established themselves in the new area but also

took responsibility of building Evaton from scratch. On their arrival, the area was

young and unspoiled with veld grass and uninhabited. Their responsibility was to

shape its physical and community development.182

Fortunately, these groups had

acquired skills from mission stations and white farms, which enabled them to

understand the processes of public works and the physical development that included

digging wells, clearing fields and building houses.

179

T. Keegan ‘Crisis and Catharis 180

Ibid 181

Interview with James Moore, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 21June 2012 182

Interview with Paul Seshabela, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 28 April 2012

60

One of the sharecropping communities that arrived before the formation of the Union

in 1910 were members of the Bakgatla Bamakau, who came from De Welt in the

northwest of the Transvaal.183

The Bakgatla were Tswana people drawn from the

ranks of the increasingly beleaguered African peasantry in the nineteenth century.

After the seizure of their land by Boers in the 1860s, some members of this clan

depended on white land for their livelihood. They practiced what was locally known

as halfde in Afrikaans or sharecropping enterprise. The experience of the Seremi

family is representative to Bakgatla sharecroppers. Dwight Seremi recalls the

growing tension on white-owned farms that forced his parents to buy property in

Evaton,

My father came to Evaton after Pienaar with whom he had a contract became

jealous because my father had lots of cattle and money that he accumulated and

that time some Boers were beginning to buy agricultural machines. When you

became rich, the farmer became jealous especially when you were hardworking

and at the time when you get rich, he would make you to spend unnecessarily by

saying why don’t you buy this plough this is not good. When you were prospering

you didn’t know where you put your money because other farmers will see you

there in the post office depositing money and jealousy will creep in and later on

came this thing of tractors and you were not allowed to buy tractor because hulle

krap die land [they are damaging land]. They would also say this chap is

competing with me and I am the owner of the land no no it’s too much. Moreover

no kaffir was allowed to write examination when we are planting.184

Seremi’s account embodies some of the common experiences of the larger social

group as recorded in the literature on sharecropping.185

The Seremi family ventured

into sharecropping after Dwight’s grandfather left their traditional land and converted

to Christianity. By then, Christianity offered education and alternative economic

opportunities that opened up for converts. On white farmland, the Seremis embarked

upon entrepreneurial activities such as selling agricultural products after harvests.

Agriculture and land were used in conjunction to produce saleable agricultural

products that brought cash. For this family, Christianity provided a favourable

opportunity for new economic relations that many Africans took advantage of as well

183

Interview with Dwight Seremi, conducted with Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 12 May 2011 184

Interview with Mjikisi Maseko, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 11 June 2011, Evaton 185

T. Keegan, Facing the Storm: Portrait of Black Lives in Rural South Africa, London, Zed Books,

1988

61

as the drive to economic security.186

The Seremis’ exposure to the white economy

introduced Dwight’s father to different artisanal skills which enabled him to meet

some economic needs in Evaton when subsistence farming ceased in the 1940s.

The Seremi family heard from other members of the Bakgatla clan that stands were

available in Evaton and they ‘crossed rivers and mountain ranges to begin life for

themselves in the land beyond the farmlands.’187

The Seremi’s wagon was drawn by

an impressive span of fourteen powerful oxen and it carried all their belongings.

Daniel Seremi’s family consisted of his wife and six children. As early as 1907, the

group of Bakgatla sharecroppers who used the clan name Kgabu moved to Evaton.

Among those who moved to the township were the Seremis, Moagis, Seshabelas and

many others. Although some were scattered all over the area, the group of Bakgatlas

who represented the pioneers were located in the old Evaton next to Number 1

Cemetery along Avondale Road.

On their arrival the Seremis bought property with cash in an area called Number 1.

The property was bought from the proceeds that Dwight’s father accumulated through

his sharecropping enterprise. Some of the family cash was acquired from the sale of

cattle and farm implements. At that time, the sale of stands was administered by John

Malay, an agent who looked after the company’s interests. Little is known about how

much the company sold stands for during this period. From 1905 to 1935, there was

less government involvement, and there was no inspection that oversaw the

subdivision of stands. The first group of residents used cash to buy properties which

implied that there were no applications for mortgages. The transaction was simple: it

included two parties, the landowner and the buyer. It was only after the promulgation

of the 1913 Land Act that aspirant land buyers were required by law to be granted

permission by the Governor General for the transfer of land.188

By 1918, aspirant

buyers had to apply for the Governor General’s consent before they could purchase

any property in the area. It was only the Governor who was authorised by new laws to

186

Ibid. 187

Interview with Dwight Seremi 188

Untitled document from the Secretary of Native Affairs, NTS 361/364 National Archives of South

Africa

62

give local buyers a permission to purchase properties in the township. 189

In the late

1930s and 1940s, when many buyers applied for bonds, the Governor General became

responsible for the approval of bonds. In those years, the township was not scheduled

as a Native Area and there was no official control; it was only proclaimed as a

released area under the Native Land Act 18 of 1936. The only surviving documents

that we have at our disposal present us with prices ranging from 1930s onwards.190

When the Seremis arrived, there were very few families. Among these families were

J.Z Tantsi’s family and Sophia Maria Adams family, a coloured family unit that

bought plot 3 and 4 in Block L23 in 1905.191

The Seremis and other members of Bakgatla residents were likely attracted by the

bigger stands of one acre and the availability of common grazing land. A year after

the Seremis settled some families such as the Seshabelas of the Bakgatla came to buy

stands. Paul Seshabela remembers that ‘my father was forced to come and buy

property in Evaton because he disagreed with the Boer on products that were supposed

to be shared among them.’192 When the Seshabelas arrived, they came with their

agricultural implements, furniture, agricultural skills and their cattle which they had

accumulated through savings from the sale of grains. The Seremis and Seshabelas

shared similar backgrounds. These families were all Christians. For instance, the

Seshabelas were African Methodists. Although Paul did not have a formal education,

he was driven by the hope that Evaton and the presence of Wilberforce Institute would

at least give his children an opportunity to study. There were other Bakgatla families

like the Moagis who also shared a similar background with the Bakgatlas. They all

settled in one geographical location in Evaton. The Seremis and Seshabelas shared a

similar background. They had a long history of moving from one farm to another.

Before Paul’s father bought property in the area, he switched from one farm to

another. Life stories told by these families reveal the experiences of the same class and

189

A letter from J De Roos to the Secretary of Native Affairs 1 December 1916, JUS 240 3/881/16

National Archives of South Africa 190

Native Affairs Department on Evaton Location: Native Township on 9th

September 1938 This report

was gathered by the author from Tladi Kekane’s private collection, and it is difficult for the author to

locate where it comes from in the National Archives. For reference purposes this report will be stored in

the History Workshop Archives located at the Origins Centre at the University of the Witwatersrand.

191

National Archives of South Africa, A letter written by Easton Adams Company to the Secretary

Health Committee, File NTS 361-364, 21 March 1936 192

Interview with Paul Seshabela, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 17 June 2009, Evaton

63

draw a picture of what happened to this Bakgatla group and how they ended up in

Evaton.

A second group of farmers who settled in Evaton were drawn from the class of small

independent farmers in Natal who were owners of registered land. While

sharecroppers were landless, they accessed land by entering into economic

arrangements where they controlled labour, skills, implements and draught power.

Terms of tenure with the landlord were normally negotiated verbally, depending on

the productive resources and power of the contractors. Independent farmers saw

landownership as an opportunity for breaking away from traditional communal

cultivation. These farmers believed that investing in small plots of land and cultivating

intensively through family labour was the only way to economic prosperity.193

What

differentiated these farmers from sharecroppers was their landownership background.

Sharecroppers were a landless group and they relied on white land for their livelihood,

whereas independent farmers had land.

There would obviously have been many reasons why these Christians independent

farmers left tribal land. Why they later decided to engage in food production and

exchange which was relatively non-monetary, while their Christian cultural values

encouraged them to be entrepreneurial. It is therefore important to put it clearly that

Evaton was different from the tribal reserves. There were no chiefs that annually

demanded a certain amount of harvest in a form of tribute. In the western perception

this tribute might be interpreted as taxation that provided considerable security for all

inhabitants, particularly the aged and physical disabled ones. In Evaton, former

Christians sharecroppers and independent farmers were free to enter into any

productive strategy that without authoritative conditions. This was possibly the reason

why independent farmers and sharecroppers entered into communal production

relationship. Even though this relationship existed, it is possible that some local

farmers were more prospereous than others. Even if a number of informants describe

Evaton families as homogeneous, some families lived a precarious life that depended

on others. This is evident when one drives around viewing architectural structures of

different families. There wee those that lived in mud shabby houses while other lived

193

J. Lambert, ‘African reasons for purchasing land in Natal in the late 19th

, early 20th

centuries,’

African Historical Review, Vol. 31.1 1999

64

in archicturally attractive houses. In other words, there was class distinction. It is

possible that some residents worked for others but this was not mentioned during

interviews.

The Dlaminis and Mbheles who were originally from Natal were representative of the

independent farmers in Evaton. Absolom Dlamini’s grandfather was an inyanga, a

traditional healer. He left his traditional land where he was born because of a family

dispute that forced him to migrate in the mid-1890s. In those years, it was common

for Africans in Natal who disagreed with their traditional families to move to mission

stations and become Christian converts.194

One of the factors that attracted Natal

Africans to mission stations was the availability of land. However, Dlamini avoided

settling on a mission station. As an inyanga who relied more on ancestoral healing

power, his avoidance was based on the fact that Christianity threatened the ritual

powers African patriarchs derived as intermediaries between the living and the

ancestors.195 Another reason that kept Dlamini within traditional circles was the

implementation of ‘Msunduzi rules’ that American missionaries drew up in 1879.

These rules prohibited church members from participating in polygamy, bride-wealth

exchange, or levirate marriage, or from drinking alcohol or smoking marijuana.196

He

left Weenen and moved to Driefontein where he bought property and got married.197

According to Absolom, ‘It is where he left some of his children and wives to occupy

his properties when he moved to the Free State.’198

His advantage was that his

traditional healing profession was lucrative;199

people who consulted him for different

illnesses and problems paid with cattle. Unlike the Bakgatla families who were

landless before coming to Evaton, the Dlaminis enjoyed property rights long before

Evaton was established. They had property in Ladysmith and as independent farmers.

194

See, for example, the examination of the prominent Wesleyan station Edendale in S. Meintjes,

'Edendale, 1850-1906: a Case Study of Rural Transformation and Class Formation in an African

Mission in Natal', PhD dissertation University of London, 1988, N. Etherington, Preachers, Peasants,

and Politics in Southeast Africa, 1835-1880 London, 1978. 195

Interview with Absolom Dlamini, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 12 May 2011, Evaton 196

M. Mahoney, ‘The Millennium comes to Mapumulo: Popular Christianity in Rural Natal’ 1866-

1906, Journal of Southern Africa Studies, Vol. 25 No 3, 1999, pp. 375-391 197

Interview with Lucy Dlamini, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 12 March 2010, Evaton 198

Interview with Absolom Dlamini 199

Ibid

65

As we shall see below, the difference between sharecroppers in Evaton could be

measured materially.

Dlamini was not a Christian convert and his traditional profession gained him

economic prosperity. His healing vocation enabled him to travel all over the country

and to some parts of Lesotho curing the sick. While working in the Orange Free State,

he was consulted by a certain white landlord who had heard of Dlamini’s healing

powers. This farmer’s wealth was limited by his unproductive land, so Dlamini used

his spiritual power to solve the farmer’s problem. Dlamini became relatively wealthy

and was a polygamist with three wives and more than ten children. He moved to

Evaton in 1908. 200

He bought four stands that suited the size of his family. Some of

his stands were shared among his children. What is striking about these pioneers is

that they demonstrate that the Evaton community was made up of socio-economically

differentiated individuals. The Dlaminis were not Christian but traditionalists who

believed in ancestors. Since Dlamini was an inyanga, he was distinct from the

Bakgatla Christian families who emphasised the significance of education. Dlamini’s

children were not that educated but they followed his footsteps of maintaining

economic independence. Even today Absolom, Dlamini’s grandson, owns a butchery

that was operated by his father who used his father’s cattle to open it up.

Another independent farmer that arrived at the same time as the Dlaminis was JJ

Mbhele who came from Natal in 1907. Mbhele bought a small farm that comprised of

six stands. He was an independent farmer in Kokspruit, Newcastle. 201

Unlike in the

Boer Republics, as early as the second half of the nineteenth century, Nguni peasants

had access to a range of land parcels that sustained them as independent producers in

Natal. In Natal, Africans were divided into different categories. There were

independent food producers who intermittently worked as wage labourers and their

submission to employment depended on their desire for cash income. This group sold

its labour to supplement earnings from the sale of agricultural produce. Some were

traditional subsistence farmers, who were independent of colonial economy.202

There

were independent farmers like Mbhele who never submitted themselves to wage

200

Interview with Absolom Dlamini conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 12 March 2010, Evaton 201

Interview with Daniel Motuba, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 25 May 2011, Evaton 202

S Meintjes, 'Edendale, 1850-1906: a Case Study of Rural Transformation and Class Formation in an

African Mission in Natal', PhD dissertation University of London, 1988

66

earnings. Apart from farming, he operated a transport business that hauled goods that

came with the midnight train from Johannesburg to local shops.203

According to

Daniel, ‘he would come back and leave the wagon there and take the cattle to the farm

because it was not far from the station, it was right in town where ISCOR is currently

located. He would take his cattle there for grazing and in the evening he would go

back to the station.’204 Mbhele became a prosperous commercial farmer. He left Natal

and moved to Boksburg where he also bought property in 1906. For reasons unknown

to his grandson Daniel, he left Boksburg and came to Evaton where he bought

properties in the Bodea Road next to the Wilberforce Institute, the area that was

occupied by educated residents who worked at the school. Though plots of land were

small in Evaton, he started farming and he kept livestock.

When the foundation of Wilberforce was laid, Evaton also received Oorlams who

were later classified in the Native Affairs Department’s records as coloureds. Oral

testimonies reveal that these newcomers were not from the Cape, nor were they

descendants of the Cape aborigines but were descendants of African communities.

Jacob Sibeko recalled ‘my father told me that these people were captives of the Boers

during raids, they were captured as children and grew up as Boers, they speak

Afrikaans, they behave like Afrikaners and they like Afrikaans.’205

Delius and

Trapido206

pioneered the literature on the formation of Oorlams, and Bonner added

more to the nascent literature on the Oorlam. Bonner documented how in the late

1840s, the Swazis, “by far and away the most important dealers in captives in the

eastern Trans – Vaal,” raided children from their weaker neighbours such as the Kopa

and the Tonga and sold them to Afrikaners in the eastern Transvaal.207

Like

sharecroppers, the Evaton Oorlams were a multi-skilled group from white farms in the

Orange Free State and Transvaal. They accumulated farming and artisanal skills from

203

Ibid 204

Interview with Daniel Motuba, 205

Interview with Jacob Sibeko , conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 23 May 2011, Evaton 206

P. Delius and S. Trapido, ‘Inboekseling and Oorlams: The Creation and Transformation of Servile

Class, in B. Bozzoli (ed), In Town and Countryside in the Transvaal: Capitalist Penetration and

Popular Response, Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1983 207

P. Bonner, Kings, Commoners and Concessionaires: the Evolution and Dissolution of the

Nineteenth-Century Swazi State, Cambridge, Cambridge Press 1983, p, 81-84

67

the white farms and mission schools. It is apparent from the accounts presented below

that the Oorlams were not just distinct from other Africans in their range of economic

skills and practices. As servants on Boer farms, they were trained in a variety of skills

such as stonecutting and building, brick making, cookery, veterinary and folk

medicine, literacy in Dutch, wagon repair, hunting, gun maintenance, making cheese

and plough farming.

Among the members of the Oorlams community were Mr Van Der Merwe, who was a

stonemason, John Malay, who looked after the Easton, Adams and Company’s

interest, Sophia Maria Adams who bought Plot 3 and 4 on Block 123 in 1905, and F.

W. Francis who owned Plot 8 and 9 in the Block 139 which he bought in 1910. In the

late 1960s and early 1970s, these residents became victims of the Group Areas Act

which squeezed them out of Evaton. It is currently difficult to trace their families.

Abel Tshawe’s testimony informs us that ‘they were just like us and some were black

like me most of them were captives during the annexation wars they were not Cape

coloureds we used to call them makatoos in the farms.’208

In Evaton, self-sufficient

Oorlams came along with families of sharecroppers from the Transvaal and Orange

Free State and independent farmers from the Cape and Natal colonies.

In the period after the First World War, a second wave of sharecroppers arrived in

Evaton. This group belonged to the Bakwena and other groups of sharecroppers, and

they came from the surrounding Mid-Vaal farms, mostly from the Vereeniging Estate

and other farms. When this group came to Evaton, South Africa was experiencing

socio-political changes that left a mark on the administration and acquisition of

properties in Evaton. This period saw the acceleration of restrictions on African land

ownership.209

The government’s desire was to see Africans in segregated areas that

secured a labour supply for urban industries. As a result, the 1913 Land Act was

imposed to satisfy the government’s wish. The most important provision of the Act

stated that Africans could no longer buy, lease, or in any other manner acquire land

outside a scheduled area, except by acquiring that land from another African.

Europeans were prohibited from buying or leasing land from an African. Only

208

Interview with Abel Tshawe, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 13 May 2013, Evaton 209

ibid

68

Africans could buy land within the scheduled areas.210

It will be demonstrated how

these changes impacted on the land purchase process and how the pre-war land

acquisition differed from the post–war purchase, and how aspiring buyers were

affected by this transformation.

The Bakwena groups were originally from the Magaliesburg area and belonged to

sedentary polities that practised agriculture and pastoralism. Their peaceful settlement

in the area was disturbed by colonial interventions, most importantly wars that

included the Difaqane and Ndebele raids in the mid-nineteenth century. These

disruptions affected this group in different ways. Some fled to Lesotho; some

subjected themselves to the Boers and other neighbouring African polities; and some

sought refuge on mission stations. 211

When sharecropping opportunities began to

open up for Africans, some members of the Bakwena joined this economic venture.

Similar reasons that pushed the group of pioneering sharecroppers off of white farms

affected the Bakwena sharecroppers. These factors include the introduction of

mechanisation. When white landlords began to use steam machines, the prospects of

African farmers continuing sharecropping dwindled.212

The position of Bakwena

commercial farmers on white-owned land was becoming increasingly precarious and

many Africans in rural areas began to seek land not under white ownership. As a

result, many African farmers who were desperate to settle on their own properties

gathered to consider the difficult circumstances that they were experiencing.213

In a

meeting that was held by the Bakwena sharecroppers in 1913, Abram Mogale

remembered that

...in that meeting it is where problems that face our parents was discussed

intensively, it is we where heard that stands were available in Evaton., some of the

Bakwenas regrouped themselves under Chief Mamogale and bought properties

210

H. Feinburg. ‘The 1913 Land Act in South Africa: Politics, Race and Segregation in the

early 20th

Century,’ International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol 26 No.1 pp 65-

109 211

S. Trapido, Putting the Plough on the Ground, in S. Trapido, et al (ed) Putting the Plough on the

Ground, Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1986 212

Ibid 213

Interview with Jackson Mokwena, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 12 June 2012, Evaton

69

somewhere in the Northwest of Transvaal, but my father did not join that

group...214

For the Bakwena sharecroppers, this was one of the most traumatic and tormenting

periods—it is described by Tim Keegan as the first ‘forced removal’ on a large scale

from white farms.215

The Mogales, Mokwenas and other families who came from the

surrounding farms decided to explore opportunities for buying land in Evaton. These

tenant farmers saw Evaton as a place where there was more space for them to re-

establish themselves and where they could also exercise their economic autonomy and

continue to practice agriculture. They also saw the presence of Wilberforce Institute,

an African-owned school that was developing into one of the most respected schools

where their children could study and further their education.

The 1913 Land Act

The 1913 Land Act had effectively prevented further purchase of land in Evaton. It

also undermined all other African option to labour tenancy. Besides, it had a severe

impact among the sharecroppers. Jackson Mokwena remembers that his father and

other members of the Bakwena families would wake up early in the morning and ride

their bicycles from the surrounding mid-Vaal farms to Evaton where they would wait

for the company officials responsible for selling properties. Mokwena recollected,

….it became difficult to buy properties during this time because our fathers had

to apply to the Governor General for his approval…this was a long process they

had to wait for ages… 216

In the period between 1913 and 1918, the purchase of stands in Evaton was

suspended, which resulted from the outbreak of World War I and the implementation

of the 1913 Land Act. At the end of 1918, the land transfer process began to get

complicated due to the implementation of the 1913 Land Act. The latter confused

Native Affairs Department officials who did not possess any legal expertise for

assessing the status of Evaton in relation to the Act. Hence, after the implementation

214

Interview with Abram Mogale, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 30 June 2012, Evaton 215

T. Keegan, Facing the Storm: Portraits of Black Lives in Rural South Africa. London, Zed Books

1988 216

Interview with Jackson Mokwena, conducted by Vusi Khumalo 12 June 2012, Evaton

70

of 1913 Land Act and during the war, land purchases in Evaton were suspended.

However, the demand for land purchases by Africans continued to increase, so the

government sought to identify a different approach to the sale of land to Africans in

Evaton.

Prime Minister Louis Botha’s solution was to introduce the Native Affairs

Administration Bill in 1917, which sought to impose a uniform system of control on

African-owned land.217

This Bill granted aspirant buyers of Evaton a way forward by

including the Governor General in the process of transferring land. The Governor

General was given the status of the sole trustee of Evaton, which implied that aspirant

buyers were required by law to apply for consent from the Governor who was given

the power to approve and disprove their applications. The purchase of land became

highly bureaucratized. The purchaser had to commission lawyers who would draft

legal documents that applied to the Governor General on his or her behalf and then the

letter would go through the office of the Secretary of Native Affairs to the Governor’s

office.218

When the Governor General had approved the application the letter would also go via

the office of the Secretary to the lawyers who would then hand it to the applicant. In

some instances, the application was turned down, especially when an applicant was

unable to furnish required details.219

The surviving documents do not indicate how

many applications were rejected. The purchase of land was also delayed by the war,

and it took more than two years before prospective buyers were given a way forward.

Mofokeng recalls that ‘during the First World War everything came into standstill,’220

and his father had to wait for several years before he could buy property in 1918. In

view of the unsettled state of the country owing to the war, it appeared as if the

purchase of land in Evaton was kept at abeyance. Aspirant buyers had to be

temporarily accommodated by local property holders, while some such as the Mogales

rented in Top Location, a township next to Vereeniging. Some families like James

Mokwena’s were accommodated by the Nhlapo family for two years while they

217

T. R. H Davenport, South Africa: A Modern History, London McMillan Press, 1991 218

National Archives of South Africa, A letter from the Secretary for Native Affairs to the Secretary for

Justice, File, JUS 240 3/881/6, 20 November 1916, 219

Ibid. 220

Interview with Jacob Mofokeng, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 9 June 2011, Evaton

71

waited for the approval of their application from the Governor General. However,

some members of this group did not persevere; they gave up and went to other areas.

James recalls that some of them went to the Zeerust area, while others sold their

livestock and farm implements and joined the labour market in Johannesburg.221

However, after a lengthy inter-departmental discussions and deliberations, the

Department of Native Affairs agreed to the principle of ‘natives’ acquiring property in

the township, but this was subject to certain conditions. One of the conditions drew

the Governor General as the sole trustee who will approve transaction during

purchase. In 1918 land purchases commenced again, and stands were sold for 26

pounds between 1918 to 1930. Apart from African buyers, coloured buyers such as

James Derbyshire, who later became a local bus operator, bought properties under the

new conditions that regulated land purchases.222

It is this period that saw the second

wave of residents that comprised the Mofokengs, the Bakwenas and many others

flocking into Evaton. What emerges from historical recollections is that the group of

African farmers who made up Evaton was diverse, but they all shared a background of

economic independence and business experience, which laid a foundation for the

emergence of local enterprises in the following decades. They represented a group of

Africans who shifted from the slumbering traditional rural sector economy to

commercial agriculture. They only enjoyed this type of agricultural practise in the

rural Highveld before coming to Evaton . This class developed a new nationalist

oriented consciousness that owe its roots to the presence of the educated neighbours.

This consciousness appeared to underpin the local community in which cultural

origins and division played a little role in dividing them. Though they lacked tribal

attributes, they were distinctly African in nature, with an inherent African mentality of

communalism.

For these reasons, they saw chiefs as agents that were manipulated for the colonial

indirect rule. They were deemed as instrumental in shaping reserves to be labour

pools. This degraded Africans into serfdom. There are two different explanations that

could possibly explain the Christian farmers’ attitude. Some of these Christian farmers

221

Interview with James Mogale, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 18 July 2011, Evaton 222

National Archive of South Africa, A Letter from Macrobert and De Villiers Attorneys to the

Secretary for Native Affairs, File NTS 376 252/26, 16 January 1930

72

were adherents’ of churches that broke away from the mainstream churches and

shared anti-colonial sentiments with these churches. It should be noted that by the

1890s, the idea of African asserting themselves anew in religious and political arena

was catching fire. 223

These Christian represented the new breed of nationalism that

rose prominence later. Another explanation could be associated with the Christian

stereotypical teaching that looked down upon African countryside as backward. For

these farmers modernisation was the key although they viewed it from different

angles. For them the modernism was viewed as a key to economic progress and

independence and an avenue for economic development. The emergence of different

forms of enterprises that will be examined in detail in the following chapter provides

us with empirical evidence and an explanation for the persistence of their economic

independence. The consciousness behind economic independence was derived from

sharecropping and independent farming enterprises. Apart from common social forces

that pushed them to purchase properties in Evaton, these residents were differentiated

and their history of dispossession and movement varied from one family to another.

Diversification among them can be attributed to their geographical origins, socio-

economic status, education, history of landownership, and religious beliefs. For

instance, the Bakgatla and Bakwena group were different from the Dlaminis and the

Mbhele who were Zulu independent farmers that enjoyed the privilege of land

ownership long before Evaton was established. These Zulu farmers were largely

distinguished by their religious beliefs, conventional practises and household

composition. Mbhele was a Christian with one wife, while the Dlaminis were

traditionalists and polygamist with three wives.224

Unlike the Bakgatla and Bakwena

who had a tenuous history of tenancy on white farms, the Mbheles and Dlaminis had a

long history of independence and land possession. For example, the Native Affairs

Commissioner of Maphumulo district complained ‘The Kafirs are now much more

insubordinate and impatient of control they are rapidly becoming rich and

independent.’225

This implied that the group of independent farmers from Natal had a

very strong background of economic independence that also impacted on their relative

political independence.

223

S. D Gish, A.B. Xuma, African, American, South African 224

Interview with Daniel Motuba, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 12 May 2011, Evaton 225

Quoted in H Slater, The Changing Pattern of Economic Relations in Rural Natal, http:// sas – space.

ac.uk/3657/1

73

This speaks to the distinctiveness of Natal in particular as a regional economy as well

as the area where entry into some kind of relationship with a white farmer was

somewhat less attractive. On the contrary, the Highveld was attractive despite the fact

that African farmers controlled their labour, plough and seed. They were not

independent because of landlessness. Considering the independence of these farmers

and the uniqueness of the area where they came, there seems to be few, if any,

examples in Evaton of this rank. The sharecroppers from the Highveld of Transvaal

and Free State outnumbered independent farmers from Natal in Evaton. In fact

sharecroppers formed a substantial proportion of the new settler community and their

needs of plentiful land. For the sharecroppers, access to Evaton was determined by a

number of factors that impacted on the lives of the early residents. One of the most

significant was the fact that before the establishment of Evaton in 1905, early

inhabitants of the area had no property rights. Some lived as squatters or renters in

private farms while others rented in the old municipality townships. They were legally

debarred from holding properties in their own names. Moreover, for many decades,

early settlers of Evaton lived under a colonial system whose administration was bound

up in the cruelties of land dispossession and absurdities. Before buying properties in

Evaton, land ownership in Transvaal, particularly in the Rand which was rich in

mineral deposits, was not easily accessible to Africans as well as poor whites. The

right to land ownership in the Rand was tied to subsurface rights that mining magnates

enjoyed. It was worse in the Orange Free State where Africans were not allowed to

purchase land.226

From the outset, Evaton attracted diverse landless settlers who were

cut off from places that they were deeply attached to; some of them, like the

sharecroppers,227

had been moving from one farm to another. This raises the question

of attitudes and how independent farmers defined themselves as an exclusive group in

the community of sharecroppers.

226

M. Chanock The Making of South African Legal Culture: Fear, Favour, and Prejudice, Cambridge,

Cambridge University Press 227

In the central Highveld and bushveld regions Africans continued to live on farms acquired by

Afrikaners through the conquest of the Ndebele under Mzilikazi and local polities, or by purchase.

African labour was needed by the white farmers, so half of the crop was kept by the white landlord and

half was kept by African workers. In many regions African sharecroppers flourished and were able to

rebuild their herds as well as acquire wagons and agricultural implements. However, once white

farmers obtained more political power they caused the sharecropping system to be modified into one of

labour tenancy in which tenants had to provide wage labour and could retain a third of the total crop.

74

The settlement of Evaton displayed a considerable diverse character of the early

population, as well as some of the common traits that drew to Evaton and this made

the area distinct. Seemingly, there was a sharp contrast between sharecroppers and

independent farmers. These differences give us a greater insight into how and who

formed the community of Evaton and how a number of economic, social and political

factors shaped the manner in which these residents perceived their surroundings. All

these factors contributed to the peculiarity of Evaton community. This also sheds light

on entrepreneurship perhaps as a form of resistance to the labour market, though the

resistance is slippery because of its openness to a wide range of interpretations.

When we examine divisions of these farmers we begin to see different experiences

within the Evaton community as the group of former landless farmers like the

Seremis, Mogale and many other groups coming together with the group of formers

landowners to form a community. The Natal contingent was made up of residents who

enjoyed the right to land ownership long before the Bakgatlas and Bakwenas. They

were more affluent than the landless sharecroppers who quickly felt the effects of

being dislocated from the farms. The Natal group like the Mbheles and the Dlaminis

continued to enjoy the proceeds of what they had accumulated over many years.

Absolom Dlamini’s testimony shed the light on how his grandfather’ wealth lasted

‘even here in Evaton he was still spending the money that he saved’228

This is

demonstrated by the fact that in the subsequent years of Evaton’s development when

the subsistence economy was increasingly troubled by demographics that led to local

socio-economic change, Mbhele’s economic muscle allowed him to buy two

expensive cars that he used as taxis to ferry residents to Johannesburg and the

Dlaminis opened up a butchery that still operates today.229

On the other hand, Dwight

Seremi’s father struggled to maintain his economic independence, and he

intermittently joined the labour market and became the builder of mining compounds

in the Reef. Dwight recalls ‘he built many compounds in the mines and he also built a

school in Sharpeville.’230

This tells us that after some years of establishing themselves

in Evaton, some residents clung to their economic independence while others were

forced by circumstance to give up and join the labour market. It was the same with

228228

Interview with Absolom Dlamini 229

Interview with Oupa Motuba 230

Interview with Dwight Seremi

75

Nicholas Motloung who submitted himself to the labour market without any attempt

to maintain his economic autonomy.

An analysis of the resident’s building styles reveals a lot about the status of the local

residents. The interim report to the Minister of Public Health in 1939 reported that in

some houses there were ceilings and the usual dung smeared on the floors and that the

majority of the structures were two or three rooms with insufficient ventilation which

made Evaton to be mainly rural.231

However, at that time the Mbhele’s house was

modernised with a pitched roof and a decorated column, wooden floors and door

frames. Such buildings were rare in the area. This sheds light about the different

economic status of the residents because the same report stated that the majority of

residents in subsequent years appeared to be impoverished.232

Local Administration

Although this study focuses on the African section of Evaton, for the better

understanding of how the township was administered. It is important to also take

account of how the white section of Evaton was governed. Our familiarity with the

manner in which white area was administered, will later help us later in this discussion

to draw a picture on how local white administration shaped by-laws that controlled

local entrepreneurship. Evaton was divided into two sections. There is white and the

African section. These two racially divided segments of Evaton were divided by a

street called Union Road. The majority of white residents were mainly Afrikaners who

were displaced by a number of factors in the farms. These factors included natural

disasters, the capitalization of agriculture, rapid industrialization and lack of available

land which offered adequate subsistence. The white section was under the control of

the Evaton Health Committee (EHC).

After a petition that was signed by 68 white residents, who styled themselves as

Evaton residents, the EHC was formed in 1936. The petition lobbied against

deplorable health conditions that were caused by the encroachment of African

livestock in white open spaces of Evaton. Whites complained to the District Surgeon

that the native herds caused fly nuisance and unhygienic conditions. After several

231

National Archive of South Africa, Interim Report No. 7 in respect of Evaton, District Vereeniging

in the Province of the Transvaal, File NTS 361/364, 11 March 1939 232

Ibid

76

meetings with the government officials, the Evaton Health Committee (EHC) was

formed in 1936. In one of the letters that was addressed to the Native Commissioner,

Baillie wrote,

the Native is as arrogant and defiant as ever, even more so now that the ‘pound’ has been closed at

Evaton, he continues to invade the whitemans area with impunity knowing full well that neither

the white or the police as he is a Supreme Lord. The young Native has grown up in the

atmosphere created by his fathers, viz trampling upon whites and openly defying them, and are

also just as arrogant as their elders233

Perhaps, Ballie’s tone, along with the establishment of EHC could be better

understood within the context of Hertzog’s reshaping of Afrikaner political attitude

that responded to the volks suffering and defeat. The local racial friction reached a

point where Baillie and his people, felt that the position in Evaton was such that they

would welcome a decision of the government to take over all from whites and

compensate them and let them clear out, and hand over the lots to the natives so that

the whiteman can find a place to live in peace which was not possible in a reserve of

Evaton containing thousands of natives along them234

In terms of any law Evaton was not scheduled or declared a ‘native village’ or whether

was the place in terms of any law a private location or farm. It was not a location or a

hostel under Native Urban Areas Act of 1923. It was not defined or set apart by any

urban local authority.235

The acquisition of land was made lawful by the Governor

General under Section 1 of the Native Land Act of 1913. The area was not even under

the Native Administration Act of 1927. This qualified the African section to be

independently governed by Izibonda, the headman.236

Izibonda styled themselves as

the village administration board. They used the chieftainship model of controlling

Eaton. They tried cases with power of appeal vested on them, but they had little or no

formal education. The position of izibonda granted some residents, such as Seremis

and other residents with different roles and responsibilities within the community. For

instance, records reveal that Daniel Seremi became an assistant headman. At that time,

233

National Archives of South Africa A letter from H.H Baillie to the Native Commissioner, NTS

361/364, 15, October 1934 234

Ibid 235

National Archive of South Africa National Archives of South Africa A letter from S P Bunting to the

Native Commissioner, NTS 361/364, 15, November 1934

236

Ibid

77

the area was experiencing the growth of local common law that gave its inhabitants a

greater access to local self-control. In turn, Africans who have been for decades

denied the privilege of decision making began to have a place in decision-making on

how local affairs should be administered. In a letter, Commissioner S. J. Bunting

indicated that in the early days of Evaton, these administrative bodies were endorsed

by the Native Affairs Department.237

It is possible that this form of administration

served as a strategy of excluding white Native Commissioners from local affairs.

Perhaps most importantly, this type of administration illustrates the complexities of

unpopular resistance that was expressed in freehold areas. It captures a distinct form

of less institutionalised strategy of resistance. Paul Seshabela informs us that the

governing committee under izibonda was responsible for local law and order

especially during local family or neighborhood disputes. In the 1930s, the township

was under the headmanship of Mr P Ngoqo, who was assisted by Petrus Mahlangu

and Daniel Seremi.238

Both local authorities were allowed by the community to try

cases. This implies that residents of Evaton governed themselves and enjoyed

considerable freedom from government interference. However, this local governance

was somehow opposed by a small section of the community, particularly the educated

residents. This educated group organised themselves under the Village Board of

Management, that had the office in Wilberforce Institute. The group dissatifaction

reflected in a letter written to the Commissioner of Native Affairs by Herman Gow

and James Tantsi, the representatives of the educated residents from Evaton. In this

letter Gow and Tantsi wrote;

We have been instructed by the Village Board of Management to lay before you the

continuous and malicious propaganda of Mr P Ngoqo to whom you issued certain specific

direction some time ago. He carries on as follow;

1. Advertised and presided at a public meeting on 15 of March, styling himself

headman of Evaton

2. He authorized Petrus Mahlangu and Daniel Seremi to try cases, with powers of

appeal vested in himself

3. In various other ways he has studiously endevoured to make the Board an of non-

effect among the people

237

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from S. J Bunting to the Secretary of the Native

Commissioner, NTS 361/364, 23 November 1942 238

National Archives of South Africa, A letter from H. Gow and J Tantsi to the Commissioner of

Native Affairs, NTS 361-364, 27 March 1931

78

4. A serious issue has arisen between Mathew Mphse and Isaac Paulengl; we want to

bring about peaceful settlement by asking Rapuleng to meet us with Mpshe.

Rapuleng answered, being duly influenced, that he will not submit to any other but

Ngoqo’s investigation

The situation is, to put it midly, SERIOUS, and we therefore ask direction from you as

will put a stop to this dangereous reputation of the proper function of the Board239

This letter reveal how complex, indeterminate and contentious was local

administration, particularly with the majority of residents favouring headman style of

administration. The ‘headman party’ was in control and the ‘educated party’ was

opposing. Perhaps these internal differences emanated from the fact that the formation

of Evaton community occurred in cohorts. When it comes to the understanding of the

local community, during its formation, residents with similar cultural background

tended to consolidate around social and cultural nodes that define its belonging.

Numerically, the educated party was smaller than the headman party. For instance, the

Native Commissioner wrote,

I have just received a petition signed by 136 members of the opposition party opposing

the present order of things and stating that they are altogether excluded in matters

pertaining township.240

The reason why the local administration style became effective was because the

people of Evaton did not like to include white magistrates in their affairs. However,

internal struggle between these two cohorts might have been triggered by the internal

pattern or practice that the headmen’s party followed, which was not aligned to the

educated party’s expectations. It is possible that it was not administrative autonomy

that the educated cohort opposed, but the approach of the headman’s committee.

The struggle for the local independent administration reflects on local dissatisfaction

with the central government. It also demonstrates how Evaton community challenged

the political order of the time. Besides, it expresses another mode of protest that was

less popularized. This types of resistance is clearly reflected in a letter that was

written by Paul Motaung who clearly stated that;

239

Ibid 240

National Archive of South Africa, A letter written by the Native Commissioner to the Secretary for

Native Affairs, NTS 361/364, 31 July 1930

79

The object is mostly for the purpose of disciplinary measures among themselves, as

they fear that, by not having any body they can entrust with their Domestic Affairs,

and avoid police being called unnecessarily at times. Which thing might force the

government to put police right in their township. In brief Sir it is the wish of the

residents that all descrepencies and any affair affecting the residents …should be dealt

with by the Board of Control first and if they have to be gone into by any authority or

police the Board of Control should recommend241

This community notion made it possible for the headman’s committee to play an

important role. This was a symptom of protest against the white administrative

institution that was intensifying in African urban areas.

With the rise of territorial segregation under the 1936 Native Trust and Land Act, and

the systematic enforcement of influx control that began in 1938. The freehold status of

Evaton and its lack of official control began to trouble the government. The

government appointed a Social and Economic Planning Council to devise a blueprint

for the post war reform. An inter-Departmental Committee under Smit’s chair was

also tasked to investige health, educational and social condition of urban Africans.

This urged the Native Affairs Department to propose the amendement of the 1927

Native Administration Act that Evaton was protected from. The aim of this

amendement was to establish local authority in Evaton. After lengthy

correspondances, debates and meeting that resisted the establishment of any kind of

control, particularly from the headman party in the 1930s. The enlightened group

favoured the proposal. As a result, they passed the resolution that the local authority

should be established. This resolution was adopted in the meeting that was held at

Wilberforce on 25 March 1944. This diverse way of thinking on administrative

matters reflects on social relations, class consciousness and local politics. It

demonstrates how each class perceived the conception of local governance differently.

This shall be addressed below. In support of the resolution, the Additional Native

Commissioner wrote,

241

National Archive of South Africa, A letter written by Paul Motaung to unkown Lawyer, NTS

361/364 dated 11 November 1944

80

The reason I am in favour of the establishment of a Body of Control, are the population of

the township as a whole consist of an enlightened and orderly…the Magistrate and the

police on the absence of crime…the fact in favour of the scheme outweigh those

against.242

In opposition, the headman party felt that they should be allowed continue to govern

themselves. For many years, they have been enjoying a considerable freedom from the

government control or interference and they felt that they never abused that freedom.

They felt that they were capable of framing their own regulations. This was expressed

in a letter written by S.P Bunting, a Johannesburg lawyer that represented the

proportion of local residents that favoured the headman. Bunting wrote, ‘village life

was on the whole peaceful and undisturbed until the recent arrival of the new police

official who they say had embarked on a new regime of prosecution and interference

in village life.243

This action foreshadowed the character of the new forms of local

control. As the discussion unfolds, we shall see how this new form of control

impacted on local entrepreneurship.

Conclusion

The aim of this chapter was to explain how different people who made up the Evaton

community from its inception cultivated the distinctiveness of the settlement, and how

a diverse population coalesced into a community that emphasized social and economic

autonomy. This community saw planned municipal townships as controlled

settlements that disrupt relative autonomy. This was achieved by shedding light on

who these pioneers were, where they came from, what attracted them to the area and

what pushed them out of their previous areas. Additionally, it explored what kind of

socio-economic dynamics emerged in this community as well as attitudes towards

landownership and economic independence. The following chapters demonstrate how

an understanding of these dynamics provide us with rationale on why the pioneering

residents preferred to maintain their economic independence that was later expressed

242

National Archive of South Africa, A letter written by the Additional Native Commissioner to the

Director of Native Labour NTS 361/364, 23 March 1944 243

National Archive of South Africa, A letter written by S.P Bunting to the Secretary for Native

Affairs, NTS 361/364, 11 December 1931

81

through enterprises which is the core issue of this thesis and how Evaton became a

space that was favourable for the continuation of money-making enterprises. Evaton

provided local resident’s space as a defence mechanism against demands made on

them by the industrial revolution and how their struggle against increased dependency

in wage labour affects the shape of Evaton community over time. It also helps us to

map out the changing economic profile of early residents, particularly those who

moved from commercial agricultural enterprises to retail and service-related

entrepreneurship. It is fair to conclude that in the following decades most of the

families were unable to escape wage labour but the families who are represented in

this chapter demonstrated their ability to escape the labour market during the time

when surrounding industries that mushroomed in the 1940s demanded local labour.

The chapter illustrated that the local community and its socio-economic traditions

were shaped by the majority landless farmers from the Highveld and former land-

owners from Natal as well as land-thirsty urbanites. The most important force that

motivated this group to settle in Evaton was to own land. However, this group

demonstrated different ways in how they would use their land. Educated residents, for

example, wanted land for building schools and churches while the former farmers

wanted to re-establish their agricultural enterprises for commercial benefit. However,

their aspiration did not materialise because of the size of stands which only allowed

farming for household food supplies. This prompted these farmers to revert to the old

ways of the African peasantry. One of the most common aspirations among the former

sharecroppers and independent famers was to maintain their economic independence

at a time when many Africans were drawn into the expanding labour market.

Therefore, the notion of economic independence that was achieved through land

ownership proves to be central to this chapter and the following chapters.

Perhaps this is one of the most important aspects that made Evaton distinctive from

other freehold areas that were rapidly urbanized because of smaller stands and their

proximity to the city. There are three features that could be attributed to the

maintenance of economic autonomy which Evaton provided to its pioneers. These

aspects were landownership, the size of stands, and grazing land. The area also

provided former landless farmers an opportunity of owning land which satisfied their

lifelong desire. This opportunity was coupled with local level-decision making in the

82

administrative affairs of the area. Local residents enjoyed the power of deciding where

community service amenities that were designed to improve the lives of the local

community members should be built. For them, Evaton provided a space where they

could express themselves freely and move without restraint from authorities. In other

words, Evaton marked an achievement especially with land issues not only for farmers

but also for educated urban residents. It was a place where autonomy was expressed

through access to land use rights. This enabled educated residents to build the

Wilberforce Institute.

83

Chapter 3

Subsistence farming and economic independence

Introduction

In the previous chapter we demonstrated how the presence of educated residents

associated to Wilberforce Institute and local churches, as well as the Institute itself

expressed the distinctiveness of Evaton. This social expression does not only represent

uniqueness of the settlement, but it characterizes and confirms Evaton’s relative

autonomy. At the point at which this analysis begins Africans were already deeply

affected by successive waves of land dispossession. Their independent economic

status was undermined. These fundamental changes in the rural economy pushed

many Africans to urban areas. This implies that the level of dependence on wage

labour was increasing among Africans. However, these changes differed from one

settlement to another. In Evaton, the process of proletarianisation appeared to be more

complex. For instance, local families practiced subsistence farming, which contributed

to their economic independence. Similar to the presence of Wilberforce and the

educated residents, the local economy provided one of the major economic

expressions of autonomy and peculiarity of Evaton. Equally important, it provided the

settlement with dignity, economic security and self respect.

More interestingly, the existence of a subsistence economy delayed local

incorporation into wage labour beyond what other freehold townships experienced on

the Reef. For local residents, this type of farming presented an alternative livelihood

that prevented locals from giving up entering into the labour market. It satisfied the

consumption needs for many families. However, pressure on arable soil began to show

84

when migrants from rural areas began to find space in which to settle. Dependance on

wage labour rose sharply, arable land was severely constrained by rooms that were

built on arable land to accommodate newcomers. Population growth also hampered

grazing land; locals were forced to reduce their livestock. In the face of these

fundamental changes, the process of proletarianisation was inescapable. However,

there were residents who were able to escape the general experience of entering into

labour market. These residents opened up different types of entrepreneurial activities

that catered for the increasing number of population. The emerging local enterprises

had deep implication in the local struggle against economic dependence and social

differentiation.

The aim of this chapter is to examine the how subsistence farming sustained local

economic independence and distinctiveness of Evaton. This explains why and how the

deterioration of subsistence farming led to the development of African

entrepreneurship. The chapter also reveals how some residents, particularly

sharecroppers who had entrepreneurial taste ventured into entrepreneurial activities

with an aim of sustaining a lifelong goal of becoming economically independent. This

explanation provides us with an economic trajectory from farming to entrepreneurship

- this was what makes the settlement so special. The first part of the chapter focuses

on subsistence farming and its development. The second part explores the population

pressure and how it constrained local farming. The final section of the chapter

discusses the emergence of entrepreneurship and the types entrepreneurial activities

that materialized.

Subsistence Farming

During the early period of Evaton, the availability of big stands provided enough

agricultural space for subsistence farming. During interviews one of the informants,

Sonto Kekane recalls ‘we had maize and different kinds of vegetables, we also had

fruit trees like grape, apple, apricots and pears, and it was green all over with trees and

plants.’244

In the first decade of the twentieth century, the low level of industrialisation

in the surrounding areas opened up space that could be used for ploughing and

grazing. Other land parcels of Weldebeesfontein farm were unoccupied and

244

Interview with Sonto Kekane, conducted by Vusi Khumalo , 4 July 2010, Evaton

85

unutilized, large areas of land was used for grazing. When properties were sold by the

Easton and Adams Company in the form of blocks, they consisted of a number of

individually owned erven. Each of these plots had its own arable land, title deeds, and

the right to common grazing land.245

Stands were divided into two, the larger stands

were 40, 800 square feet and the smaller ones were 291 square roods and 96 square

feet.246

Subsistence farming became one or the other feature of the pioneering stage in

Evaton. Although land was small compared to the land that the former sharecroppers

worked on white farms, it was enough for subsistence purposes. This is supported by

Mjikisi Maseko’s recollection,

...we never starved in Evaton families were productive units....we as children

worked with our parents ploughing fields, my father was strict he wanted us to

work and we worked, we also looked after cattle... ‘hey man there was nothing

people of Evaton were practicing agriculture, they were just planting in their

stands for example I would plant this place there was no poverty there was maize

in these stands we were not starving there was sorghum as well you see there

were buses there was also a grinding stone where people will grind their corn and

we were not starving and suffering here in Evaton.247

Tsepo Khanyi pointed out a grinding stone that her mother used and observed,

we looked down upon people from urban areas because they bought everything

while we were planting everything, here at home we grinded (sic) mabele

(sorghum) and made ting sour porridge that is made out of sorghum. We never

bought mabele or maize we planted and we exchanged with other families.248

In Evaton’s early years, local residents reverted to the old ways of the African

peasantry. They grew their own food and lived as an interdependent community that

was bonded by reciprocity. Each family was responsible for producing its own food

that would take care of its subsistence needs. Local families were not dependent on

food that was purchased from grocery stores. Indeed, there were very few household

items that were bought from the grocery store and they were secondary to daily food

245

Ibid 246

National Archive of South Africa, The Report of the Secretary for Native Affairs, File URU Vol,

524. Ref 3/881/16, 15 September 1935 247

Interview with Mjikisi Maseko, conducted by Vusi Khumalo , 14 May 2010, Evaton 248

Interview with Tsepo Khanyi, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 3 July 2009, Evaton

86

consumption. Perhaps the local families were also enmeshed in monetary relations,

but this assumption is not clear from the interviews. What is clear from the interviews

is the relationship between land and agricultural practice. This claim paints a picture

that the local agricultural practice minimized local dependence on local money

relations. However, money was used for external purchase of some household

commodities, school books, for travelling cost and other needs. It was further used for

school fees that were paid in local schools, such as Wilberforce. Most interviews

emphasized the significance of land than money. Seshabela recalled that ‘our fathers

believed that land ownership especially the size of stands that they owned helped them

not to depend on wage employment.’249

Land was a major resource for economic

stability, and it was where food was sourced through agriculture and cattle relied on it

for grazing. The local economy was characterized by a complex interrelationship

between cattle-holding and cultivation and family labour’s participation in the

subsistence economy. Local economic strength involved processes of economic

calculation which originated from and were directed towards the material interests and

well-being of the individual family.

The local agricultural practices were blended with pre-colonial indigenous economic

systems and social links that bonded Evaton families together. For instance, during

harvest time, different families would exchange crops in the form of bartering. This

was observed by Paul Seshabela who recalled ‘one man will plant potatoes another

one will plant mealies and they would barter after harvest.’250

Early residents formed

work parties that were based on traditional African economic welfare. These parties

worked as letsema in SeTswana or ilima in the Zulu language. Sonto recounted,

... every year when we were about to plant, we had letsema a certain old-man

would come with his donkeys and turn the soil of all the houses on our street, his

name was Mankune, We worked as a community, everyone would go help out

from the first house till the last one.251

Work parties are widely reported in pre-industrial ethnography. As far as south-

eastern Africa is concerned, the first detailed description by a social scientist seems to

249

Interview with Paul Seshabela, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 12 July 2010, Evaton 250

Ibid 251

Interview with Sonto Kekane

87

be of the Lovedu.252

Kuckertz noted that classical ethnographies stress two elements,

the first being some kind of reciprocally rendered assistance or service, the other one

being an enactment of a social value rather than an economic affair. 253

During this

period many public works activities like building, pit digging, and clearing of fields

appealed to local residents not necessarily because of financial rewards but because of

mutual assistance. This is evident in the letter that J. B Malindisa, the Induna of the

National Royal Club of the Evaton branch, wrote to the Native Commissioner which

reads as follows,

People are poor and make their living on ploughing and getting twelve bags of

mealies a year. What we do out here in Evaton as we see that we are poor we

help each other as; one dies we make collection of foodstuff and grave is dug by

men free of charge and also taking of the body is taken by wagon free of

charge.254

This letter is an intriguing document that supports the claim of informants. For the

great majority of Evatonians, in the early of the settlement’s development the

community offered security. There were no private undertakers that would be paid

when an individual dies, there were no funeral insurances for individuals. In terms of

crisis, the community had to play important role in burying the dead. Apart from

funerals, the local community was bonded together by different activities that were

done communally. The notion of individualism was not known, the social group or

the community was more important than individual’s right and privileges. Sharing

was central to the community of Evaton. This affirms social connectedness, human

value, trust and dignity. Seshabela remarks, ‘it was not like today when people just

come to bury the dead without contributing something’255

There exists an emphasis

on social bonds and mutual interdependence such that the good of the individual was

closely intertwined with the good of the group.

252

E. Krige, and J. D. Krige, The Realm of a Rain-Queen: A Study of the Pattern of Lovedu Society.

London: Oxford University Press, 1943 253

H. Kuckertz,’Organizing Labour Force on Mpondoland: A New Perspective on Work Parties,’

Journal of African International Institute, Vol 55, 1985 pp115-132 254

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from J. B. Malindisa to the Native Commissioner, File

NTS 361/364, 28 August 1939 255

Interview with Paul Seshabela, April 2009

88

This helps to account for why before the 1930s, local development was done

communally and why Wilberforce, the first school, was built by a group of local

artisans who never wanted any payment.256

Apart from Wilberforce, many churches

and local community centres were built by local artisans. Among these artisans were

Makhene, a brick-maker, Motuba, a teacher and wagon maker, Mareletsi, a bricklayer,

Pooe, a baker, Tswagong and Rapodile, bricklayers and makers, Mamasile, a scotch

roof maker, Marago, a wagon maker and a crafter of wagon wheels, and many others

like Sonto’s grandfather, a shoemaker.257

There were also stonemasons like Meku’s

grandfather, leatherworkers, wood carvers, carpenters, wagon builders, teachers,

clergy, iron smelters, herbalists and so forth. Mission schools and exposure to the

white economy provided these residents with the basis for independent commodity

production that served as the foundation of local entrepreneurship.

An Evaton family that required the service of the letsema would invite letsema

members and prepare food and traditional beer. Co-operation between homesteads

occurred particularly in the form of borrowing draught animals for ploughing and

harvesting and in organizing work-parties for hoeing and weeding. This implied that

the individual household required help from other homesteads for many of its

domestic as well as economic activities. In Western terms, it could be argued that

work operated in a contractual form where an individual participant was indebted to

provide equal service to the previously serviced party.

In addition to agricultural work, these parties were also responsible for public works

such as building roads. During the physical development of Evaton, these co-

operatives became a very important unit for public works and local administration.

They became functional during road works, digging pits, clearing fields for

cultivation, school building and other local development projects. This is reflected in

William Mokwena’s testimony on the establishment of the school,

....They talk about this they were in the coal yard, somebody said no man each

household should contribute pound and we will go and challenge commissioners.

Then they started collecting this money pound per stand. After they collected

256

J Nhlapo, Wilberforce 257

Interview with William Mokoena, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 21 July 2009, Evaton

89

they went to commissioner wearing coats, they said hey man here is our money

we want the school. The amount of money that the elders collected shocked the

commissioner... [said the commissioner] I will take it to the bank, the elders said

no talk to the government then you will come back to us.258

.

Evaton residents adhered to communal work for the security that it offered. This form

of communalism was socially instrumental for maintaining social order and reducing

jealousy among lazy families. Every family was obliged to participate so as to avoid

greed. Mjikisi Maseko pointed out that these parties also provided people an

opportunity to debate social problems.259

It is where gossip was exchanged, the news

providing an informal forum wherein actions of community members was discussed

and evaluated and if necessary censured.260

Within this discourse, an African

philosopher John Mbiti summed up this socio-cultural practice in the following

statement, ‘I am because we are, and since we are therefore I am’.261

This is what the

people of Evaton believed.

Like in any other African rural settlement, livestock, particularly cattle, was a major

form of capital in Evaton. Sheep and goats were secondary although sheep were more

commercial for their skins. However, in Evaton, the sheepskin trade was not

practiced.262

Though animals were occasionally killed for meat, cattle produced many

useful domestic products such as milk which was fermented to make amasi (sour

milk) which was one of the principal items of the local community. Milk, whether

sour of fresh, was a staple food with varieties of grain. Cattle also provided meat for

feasting and cow dung for floor decoration, fuel and manure as well as skins that were

used for shoes, robes, sandals and other leather commodities. Oxen were used for

drawing ploughs and wagons.

In cases of family economic crises, cattle were exchanged for cash. For instance,

Aubrey Mofokeng remembered that in order for his parents to pay his fees at Adams

College, they had to sell cattle to some Afrikaners.263

It was common in those years

258

Interview with William Mokoena, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 21 July 2009, Evaton 259

Interview with Mjikisi Maseko 260

Interview with Paul Seshabela 261

J. Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophies, New York, Doubleday and Company. 1970. p. 141 262

Interview with Amos Moagi, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 23 July 2010, Sebokeng 263

Interview with Aubrey Mofokeng, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 15 May 2011, Evaton

90

for the residents of Evaton to sell their cattle in order to pay school fees for their

children. At that time, residents defined wealth in terms of cattle. Thus, a household

with many head of cattle was regarded as rich. For each and every local family, cattle

acquisition was the main ambition and it was a source of worries and joys.264

Another

major use of livestock was for acquiring wives which was a common cultural practice

in Southern Africa. By then, livestock farming was favoured, and the fact the area was

sparsely populated while its topographical formation was flat meant that the area was

immune to soil erosion.

However, from the late 1920s and early 1930s, the number of cattle gradually

decreased because of population growth that impacted on grazing land. In 1938 the

Secretary for Native Affairs reported that ‘natives residing in the Township and that

between them they owned about 3,750 head of large stock (including horses) and 600

small stock.’265

During this period the area had 200 acres of grazing land which was

inadequate for local needs.266

Initially Evaton had an adequate amount of open space

that was left for grazing and other purpose. This was noted in a letter from Mr Easton,

one of the owners of Weldebeesfontein who wrote to the Secretary for Native Affairs

where he stated that ‘it is not intended to deprive this Native community of all open

spaces...it is not intended to sell the whole of the lands. 267

Thus the decrease of

livestock could be attributed to the shortage of common grazing land, as well as to

various factors, such as, the 1930s drought that was locally known as ‘leruli’. This

deficiency may have contributed to the decrease in cattle due to the resulting

difficulties in grazing. In the early 1930s, when depression and drought threatened to

overwhelm the farming sector, the government supplied white farmers with cattle feed

and financial aid, but similar assistance was not extended to African farmers whose

ability to market their grain crops was severely impaired by the high mortality

amongst draught oxen and donkeys.268

Sources indicate that by 1937, Evaton, which

was 1,300 morgen in extent, already had 1,700 plots which were sold to residents.

264

Interview with Thembi Nkutha, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 23 September 2011, Evaton 265

National Archive of South Africa, Report of Inspection at Evaton Native Township, File NTS

361/364, 9 September 1938, 266

Ibid 267

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from Mr Easton to the Secretary of Native Affairs dated,

File NTS 361/364, 19 November 1936 268

Zoutpansberg Review, 28 January 1936

91

The local Special Justice for Peace estimated that the residents’ population was

between 14000 and 20000.269

Although these families produced enough for subsistence, they were living under

capitalism and had to cope with capitalist demands. For instance, they had to pay

colonial taxes, sponsor their children’s education and sustain other household needs.

Besides, they had to deal with changes in consumption tastes because Evaton families

were beginning to experience new needs and desires that were similar to those of

white people. Moreover, families of the early residents valued education driven by the

strong belief that education would provide the means to advance them in civilization.

Hence the acquisition of artisanal skills was desirable. Lily Nondala pointed out that

when she arrived with her parents from Sophiatown in 1933, it was during the drought

period and people were starving.270

Nondala’s testimony that touches on natural

impact on agriculture may be linked to a letter from Hope Baillie to D Gunn, the

acting entomologist in which Baillie complained about the ladybirds that were

destroying pumpkins. In response, Mr Gunn wrote ‘with reference to your inquiry

regarding the destruction of ladybird I have honour to state that the best remedy to be

employed against them is undoubtedly arsenate of load...should be sprayed upon

plants.271

Population growth and the demise of subsistence farming

Evaton saw the arrival of some educated families that came during this period. One of

the most well-known families was the Nhlapo family that came from Reitz, Orange

Free State. This family came after Jacob Nhlapo received an invitation from Bishop R

R Wright, a presiding bishop of the AME church, to come and work at Wilberforce

Institute as principal. Nhlapo served as principal from 1940 to 1947.272

At

Wilberforce, he contributed by purchasing an additional seven morgen of land where

269

National Archive of South Africa, Report of the Native Affairs Department, NTS 361/364, 1937 270

Interview with Lily Nondala, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 16 May 2010 271

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from Hope Baillie to the Acting Entomologist Mr Gunn

File BNS 1/8/ 116/ 4197 National Archive of South Africa, 25 July 1909 272

J. Campbell The Songs of Zion The African Methodist Church in the United States and South Africa,

Chapel Hill, University of North Caroline Press,1998

92

he erected more buildings that extended the Institute.273

At the same time, the area

saw the arrival of Moses Kekane’s family. Kekane came from Sophiatown where he

was a teacher and later became the principal. In Sophiatown, Kekane had been banned

from teaching because of the role that he played in the formation of Transvaal United

African Teachers Association (TUATA),274

According to his son, Tladi Kekane,

….after my father was banned from teaching my aunt who was also a teacher and a

shop owner in Evaton called him to come and manage her shop. The aim was to keep

him busy because he could not practise as a teacher and he had no income. He then

worked at Nkabani General Dealer and managed to buy property in the area.’275

It is possible that Evaton served as a refuge for political rebellious individuals and

persons who were frustrated by stringent government control. One of the most

important factors that attracted a large proportion of educated people was the

expansion of Wilberforce which by 1936 had more than 35 students. This number

increased in a few years to accommodate more than 200 students.276

By this time,

Evaton’s appeal, however, lay not only in the autonomy it offered but in the

availability of education. Wilberforce Institute made Evaton to be special and distinct

- it attracted students from all over Southern Africa. This is exemplified by learners

that came from as far as Northern Rhodesia (Zambia). Ethel Chunga, for instance,

came from Nkana, Northern Rhodesia. In her letter of application, she stated;

…the immigration Authorities here advised me to consult you and the Commissioner of

Immigration ...Any arrangement which will be arrived at will be greatly appreciated (the

concession to read fare from Ndola to Evaton. I will send an advance of school fees

amounting to £4 at the beginning of the next month.277

By 1940 there were educated people who came to Evaton, even from as far away as

the United States of America. One of the African Americans who became the eighth

principal of Wilberforce was Dr. J.M. White who came with his wife J White, who

273

Historical Papers University of the Witwatersrand, A short biography of J M Nhlapo, Jacob Nhlapo

Papers, A1007 274

Interview with Tladi Kekane, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 16 July 2009, Evaton 275

Ibid 276

Historical Papers, University of the Witwatersrand, A letter from Opperman to Dr Xuma on the

increase of the student roll dated AB Xuma Papers, AD 834, 17 July 1938 277

Historical Papers, University of the Witwatersrand, A letter from Mr E. H Chunga to the Principal of

Wilberforce Institute, Xuma Papers, AD 834, 7 March 1936

93

became the secretary of the Institute in the late 1930s.278

When Bishop Wright of the

AME went to America in 1938, he talked a great deal about the Institute and this

inspired Dr. Jeophus Roosevelt Coan, a professor of Old Testament Theology at

Morris Brown Institute, Atlanta to come to South Africa with him. Coan’s helped to

establish the R.R. Wright School of Religion on the campus of Wilberforce Institute in

Evaton. In 1940, he was selected to become the first Black superintendent of

Wilberforce Institute. 279

Coan served as a missionary in South Africa for nine years.

This was one of the social aspects that made Evaton distinctive from other freehold

settlements. The presence of these African-Americans in Evaton could be accounted

to the ideas of racial uplift and African advancement that was grounded on the Pan

Africanist framework that inspired the foundation of Wilberforce Institute. The

presence of the African -American professionals was motivated by a desire to uplift

and redeem Africa. Their participation at Wilberforce Institute dovetailed what the

first group of African-American missionaries cultivated in the last decade of the

nineteenth in South Africa. The path that Coan and White followed was the trail that

was paved by the earlier African-Americans. They came to Evaton to develop new

professional skills that were going to be useful to Africans in South Africa. At that

time many theological schools did not accept aspirant priests from independent

spiritual churches but the RR Wright Theological School at Wilberforce Institute

welcomed these applicants. Like Wilberforce Institute, RR Wright did not cater for the

children of the adherents of the AME church but it was open for learners from

different denominations, and for those who were not attached to any denomination.

‘The educational output of this college, in line with others at the time, was well captured

by Sunkler’280 who stated that;

Besides the president himself (now deceased), there were forty-eight ministers’ in

the Church. Of the forty-eight ministers one was a graduate from a Negro Teachers’

College in the United States; six had South African Teachers’ Certificates; one had

passed Standard VII; five Standard VI; three Standard V; fourteen Standard IV;

eight Standard III; and eight Standard II. As for additional theological training, nine

of these men had studied at three different Mission Bible Institutes, while thirteen

others had been working in Mission Churches and presumably taken some Bible

278

J. Nhlapo, Wilberforce Institute, Boikhutso Institute, 1949 279

Ibid 280

V. Molobi, The AICS and the Theological Training with Special Reference to the St John Apostolic Church of Ma Nku, Research Institute for Theology and Religion, undated

94

study there, and twenty-three had had “private studies” in theology. The Holy

Communion Church of South Africa: one of the ministers has attained a Standard IV

in school; the bishop himself and the three ministers claim knowledge of Zulu or

Xhosa, but none of them has had any theological training whatsoever.281

The coming of Dr Coan in Evaton encouraged African religious priests from

independent churches to develop a sense of pride. Coan transported African American

religious and educational achievement to South Africa. The arrival of Dr. White and

Coan in Evaton sustained and continually reshaped the close transatlantic ties between

Africans in the United States and South Africa. As a distinct freehold settlement,

Evaton represented the space where the effort to forge connections between African

Americans and Africans was expressed. This connection became a primary focus of

Wilberforce Institute. From its inception the Institute maintained close ties with the

United States. Apart from the connection that was cultivated by the dozens of

American graduates in the early stage of Wilberforce development. The American ties

were further maintained by Eva Mahuma Morake, who graduated with Masters

Degree from Columbia University. In the 1930s, she became the first female principal

of the Institute. In Wilberforce, Morake worked very close with Dr. Xuma who was

the treasurer of the Institute in the 1930s. Xuma himself had strong ties with America

to an extent that he got married to Madie Hall, the African American graduate from

Columbia University. 282

During this period, the settlement and its population was expanding, according to the

report of the Health Inspector, 151 plots were sold and a clause inserted into the deed

of sale that these lots could not be subdivided. By 1941, 71 houses were built on the

plots and the value of dwellings and improvement was estimated by the Native

Commissioner of Vereeniging at ₤12 010.283

The arrival of these property buyers and

the further subdivision of Weldebeesfontein Farm meant that grazing land became too

281 B. G. Sunkler. Bantu prophets in South Africa. London: Oxford University Press, 1964, quoted by V

Molobi The AICS and the Theology

282

I. Berger, An African American ‘Mother of the Nation’ : Madie Hall Xuma in South Africa, 1940-1963, Journal of African Studies, Vol 27, 2001 283

Native Commissioner Report, NTS 361/364, 26 March 1946

95

small to provide pastures for livestock, and residents were compelled to sell their

livestock which provided milk for subsistence.

The freehold status and location of Evaton, which was geographically, located in the

heart of large industrial area, attracted many newcomers from different parts of the

country. During this period, the urban Transvaal was being industrialised and many

freehold areas in the Reef experienced population growth that changed their character.

The examination of Alexandra and Sophiatown presents us with a typical example of

freehold settlements that experienced population growth earlier than Evaton.

Population growth in these townships was shaped by institutional forces and the

relative autonomy that these settlements presented. These socio-political forces enable

us to explain why these settlements became overpopulated. There was combination of

factors that led to overpopulation of these freehold areas. These reasons range from

the changing residential arrangements in the Rand to pass laws. Pass laws became one

of the most important factors that accelerated population growth in the freehold

townships of Johannesburg. What is clear from many studies is that urban life for

male immigrants remained conditional. 284

Apart from institutional factors, the owners

of freehold plots in these settlements especially those who were burdened with bonds

which were used for building solid structures saw sub-letting shacks and rooms to new

arrivals as means of income.285

As the freehold area that was far from Johannesburg and it experienced changes in a

different way from other freehold settlements. The changing conditions in the

settlement came along with increasing constraints on land use that affected the local

subsistence economy and the economic independence of local inhabitants. These

circumstances forced local residents to change their economic activities that impacted

their socio-economic occupations. Before the arrival of the newcomers in the mid-

1930s, the land available for agriculture and grazing was abundant, and the human

movement into the urban areas from the surrounding countryside was small compared

to what was to come later. However, it was not the same when Dr Clark, a Deputy

284

M. Wilson and A. Mafeje, Langa Cape Town, Oxford University 1963, Mayer, P. 1961 Xhosa in

Town: Studies of the Bantu-speaking population of East London, Cape Town, Oxford University Press,

1961, D. Welsh 'The Growth of Towns' in M. Wilson and L. Thompson (eds), The Oxford History of

South Africa, Vol. II 1971. J. Cherry, 'The Making of an African Working Class, Port Elizabeth, 1925-

1963', M. A. dissertation, University of Cape Town 1992 285

P. Bonner. P. N Nieftagodien, Alexandra, p. 6

96

Chief Health Inspector, visited the area in 1940. During these years, wage labour

migrants were finding it increasingly difficult to find suitably priced residential

accommodation as no new houses were being built.286

In consequence, many labour

migrants looked to Evaton as a place in the region where they could settle freely

without being required to obtain permits that authorised them to be in the settlement.

The increasing population and the room letting enterprise were reported by the

Additional Native Commissioner to the Director of Native Labour.

This released area has increased exceedingly rapidly in population owing to its

proximity to Johannesburg, and to the absolute lack of control over community.

Most of standholders owning large houses keep lodgers, others have permitted the

building of one and two roomed huts on their stands...sanitary convenience

available on any one stand are quite inadequate for all residents. 287

Similar conditions were observed by Dr. Clark who was alarmed during his inspection

by the changing conditions in the settlement. He reported, ‘Natives in Peri-Urban

Areas outside Released Area, was likely to be irksome and that these natives would

tend to move away from control into released area and so aggravated the position in

Evaton.’288

Many stand-holders in Evaton took an advantage of the situation and

sublet rooms to migrants. In response, Clark reported that the area had become

congested and that slum conditions were beginning to appear in Small Farms. He

further concluded that these conditions posed a danger of contamination and

infection.289

By 1939, it was estimated that the population increased from 12 000 to

approximately 40 000 residents.290

This suggests that Evaton’s population doubled in

few years. This congestion did not only pose a danger to health conditions but it also

contributed to the end of subsistence farming.

Physically, the new development changed the pattern of land use. Agricultural fields

were transformed into residential space where rooms were built for tenants, and these

286

P. Bonner, African Urbanisation on the Rand between the 1930 and 1960: Its Social Character and

Political Consequences, Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol.21 No.1 pp, 115-129 287

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from the Additional Native Commissioner to the Director

of Native Labour, NTS 361/364, 26 March 1946 288

National Archive of South Africa, A Report of the Deputy Chief Health Inspector on Local Health

Condition, NTS 361-364, 17 May 1946, 289

National Archive of South Africa, A Report of the Deputy Chief Health Inspector on Local Health

Condition, NTS 361-364, 27 May 1940, 290

National Archive of South Africa, Report of the Native Affair Commission, NTS 361/364, 1939

97

dwellings were built on arable land. Depending on the landlord’s choice, many yards

had five to ten rooms, but the largest number of rooms that were built during this

period had 30 rooms and all were rented out to newcomers.291

From an administrative

point of view, this transition introduced threats to the izibonda’s administrative power

and to the local autonomy and to the freehold status of Evaton. This was recognized

by Edward Thornton, the chairman of the Peri Urban Health Board, who was troubled

by the influx of newcomers. He called for the establishment of a local authority that

would be equipped to provide essential services to control the influx of ‘undesirable

elements and to prevent the further development of slums condition.’292

There were external forces that pushed many newcomers to the freehold township of

Evaton. These forces included the state influx control measures and tight control over

the daily lives of urban Africans; the regulation of African entrepreneurship; and the

adverse conditions that squeezed out African labour tenants from white farmlands.

Population growth and the decline of subsistence farming cannot solely be attributed

to the arrival of rural wage labour migrants who rented rooms. One of the most

pressing factors on subsistence was the removal of Top Location that led to the

establishment of Sharpeville.293

Top Location had many tenants who rented rooms and

a large proportion of these tenants did not qualify for housing schemes in the newly

established Sharpeville. Still more reprehensible was the failure of the location

administration to make use of its resources to control the illegal brewing of beer and

the massive inflow of its principal manufacturers – predominantly Basotho women.294

When Top Location was relocated to Sharpeville, these groups of women and other

immigrants, particularly those who did not qualify for new housing allocation,

streamed into Evaton. Joshua Vilakazi recalls,

291

Personal observation that was supported by oral testimonies on the structure of the rooms that were

used as early as the 1940s. 292

National Archive of South Africa, A Report of the Deputy Chief Health Inspector on Local Health

Condition, NTS 361-364, 17 May 1946 293

P. Frankel, An Atrocity: Sharpeville and its Massacre its Massacre 294

P. Bonner, ‘Desirable or Undesirable Sotho women? Liquor, Prostitution and the Migration of Sotho

Women to the Rand 1920-1945,’ A seminar paper that was delivered in African Studies Institute,

University of the Witwatersrand 1988

98

‘Many Basotho came here when Top was demolished and the new space and rules in

the new location were not the same. The municipality became strict and beer

brewing was closely monitored.’295

Oral evidence indicates that if beer brewers had gone had gone to Sharpeville rather

than Evaton, it would have certainly spelled the end of their beer brewing

enterprises.296

The freehold status of Evaton made the area more attractive than the

new Sharpeville, where occupation was regulated. According to Mamokiti Seloane, a

former beer brewer who now lives in Evaton ‘We would not go to Sharpeville because

the ‘blackjacks’ [as municipality police were called] were very strict and some of us

never had pass books.’ 297

This removal of Top Location was not well received by

beer brewers - tenants, mostly Basotho from Lesotho. Mohlalepule Moloi recalls ‘it

was meant to impoverish us when they removed us from Top. Where we had been

close to town and never needed transport money because we just walked to wherever

we wanted to go.’298

Women who rented rooms in Evaton Small Farms were

independent single women. They were beer brewers or self-employed dressmakers

and tailors.299

They often came independently to the towns, sometimes because of

broken families, and were likely to settle more permanently than men.300

The presence

of the women turned Evaton into a centre of attraction for male migrants who spent

lonely months without their loved ones. Maseko recollects, ‘…over weekends

migrants from all over the Reef will come for weekend drinking spree.’301

Tladi

recalls ‘There were many parties that were held over weekends by Basotho people.

They turned Small Farms into little Lesotho, and they were also organised as regional

factions.’302

During 1940s, many urbanized Africans from the Johannesburg peri-urban area, slum

yards, municipal locations and white owned yards chose to relocate to Evaton. These

urbanites bought properties and set up homes in Evaton. Geographically, the

295

Interview with Joshua Vilakazi, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 20 May 2012, Vereeniging 296

Interview with Mamokiti Seloane, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 21 May 2012, Sebokeng 297

Ibid 298

Interview with Mohlalepule Moloi, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 23 July 2012, Phiri 299

Interview with William Mokwena, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 27 April 2010, Evaton 300

P Bonner, ‘African Urbanisation on the Rand Between the 1930 and 1960: its Social Character and

Political Consequences’, Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol 21 No 1 301

Interview with Mjikisi Maseko, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 29 December 2011, Evaton 302

Interview with Tladi Kekane, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 7 July 2010, De Deur

99

settlement was expanding and its growth was accelerated by the arrival of these

newcomers. It was less than five years when the Edward Nathan and Friedland

Attorneys made application on behalf of the Adams and Easton family to sell the

grazing land. An extract from the application that was investigated by the Native

Affairs Commissioner reads as follow;

That a clause be inserted in the deed of sale to the effect that the holding may not be

subdivided and that no person other than the owner or the member of his family or

may reside on such holding. The condition of sale contain a clause to effect that, in

the event of the purchaser making default in the payment of any instalment and the

sale being cancelled by reason of such default, the sellers shall be bound to refund to

the purchaser all monies paid by him less a reasonable sum as commission, etc., not

exceed 10% .303

Some of these newcomers brought their wives and children, while single men like

Mogoerane organised marriages with women from Evaton or from other areas. Most

urban workers who relocated to Evaton were employed in the Reef towns that

surrounded Johannesburg. They were relatively poor and most of them relied on bonds

for the purchase as well as construction of their properties. Some were single women

who could not qualify for mortgage bond. This is illustrated by the letter of mortgage

bond application of N.E Sechaba. In this letter I. P O’Driscoll wrote;

The relative document were forwarded by this office to the Assistant Native

Commissioner, Evaton who was instructed to ascertain from a woman, Sechaba, the

reason for the bond…her sources of income, and whether she understood the

obligations imposed by the bond and the result to meet failure such obligation…I do

not recommend official approval of this transaction, as I feel that the woman will be

incurring an obligation which may prove to be beyond her means to meet and which

may possibly result in the loss of property in the event of such failure on her part.304

During this period Evaton saw more women buying properties. Francis Yina’s letter of

bond application confirms the number of women who bought properties. In this letter,

F.H. Behrmann wrote ‘...the loan to erect a brick building under an iron roof to be

used as a fresh vegetable and fruit shop.’305

The urban newcomers could be divided

303

National Archive of South Africa, The Report to the Minister of Native Affairs, NTS 361-364, 27

May 1947 304

National Archive of South Africa, Application for Mortage Bond : N.E. Sechaba, NTS 376 252/56,

6 June 1950 305

National Archive of South Africa, Application for Mortage Bond :F. Yina, NTS 376 252/56, 12

February 1944

100

into three categories. In the 1930s, there were tenants from the freehold locations of

the Reef which were already overpopulated by working people in the 1930s,306

backyard dwellers from white yards, and those who held leasehold properties in

municipal areas. For example, there were the Nondalas, Moagis and other families that

came from the freehold area of Sophiatown. There were also the Khumalos who were

domestic servants in white premises and were squeezed out by municipal policies that

attempted to restrict the increase of African families living in white premises.307

Those

who came from the east and western municipality townships were the Nxumalos,

Mokgoju and other families. Lily Nondala recollects that her father decided to buy

property in Evaton because the area was quiet and peaceful with big yards. Her

testimony sheds light on how the peaceful social atmosphere in Evaton attracted

urbanites especially from other overcrowded African settlements. John Dandala, who

came with his family in the same period from Sophiatown, recalled,

‘….many people in Sophiatown did not know the names of their neighbours. It was the

opposite in Evaton where residents were ready to help whenever their neighbours were

in need. The relationship among residents was so close that we usually attended

ceremonies whether traditional or other of each and every family. Elders would help and

contribute presents and food.’308

In those years, Sophiatown and city centre slums such as Malay Camp and

Doornfontein were affected by subletting since landlords were attempting to generate

more profit. As a result, they would crowd their plots with many tenants for the sake

of gaining profit. Parnell recorded that landlords ‘could honestly claim to have rented

35 families, 145 were found on his property.’309

This implied that urban landlords

were unscrupulous and that they did not adhere to health and safety measures that

were in place to avoid overcrowding in these settlements. The average stand in places

like Sophiatown had seven to eight families living in a single room. The Nondalas

were joined by the Khumalo family. In his own words, the late Alf Khumalo, a former

Rand Daily Mail, Bantu World and Drum reporter and photographer, recalled,

We lived in Lyndhurst, we lived in Alexander, we also lived in Bedfordview, when it was still

bushy, as you see. Now there are many buildings. There was nothing, by then there were only

306

Interview with Lily Nondala and Moagi, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 12 May 2011, Evaton 307

S.M Parnell, Johannesburg Backyard: the slum of Doornfontein, Bertram and Prospect Township.

History Workshop, University of the Witwatersrand, 1987 308

Interview with John Dandala, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 20 October 2011, De Duer 309

Ibid, p. 9

101

white small farms. We occupied one of the houses that was left by some white people. Then

from there we went to Alexandra. When we left, I was thirteen, in 1943. But before that my

father took me and showed me a place that he bought, because other members of the family

had gone to Natal for Christmas as it was during school holidays. So I lived in Evaton until

the sixties. We still have our family stand there on 8th Street Evaton. There are tenants living

there.310

A number of points that emerge from these individual histories inform us that Evaton

was peaceful, clean and well ordered - it was not overpopulated and the area enjoyed

the elements of reciprocity and non-monetary ties that bonded community members.

‘Evaton is one of the most orderly places I know of in the Transvaal,’ said Sol

Plaatjie, testifying to the Native Economic Commission. 311

At this stage, residents of

Evaton appeared to be cordial to each other, and the environment was greener than in

Sophiatown where there was no space for greenery. This seems to be of importance in

many testimonies. Lily Nondala remembered,

‘it was very nice very nice ... people who lived here had love and they were strong

and united and the house you could count then the houses here I remember it was

the house of Boshego and Lejoge, the house of Matsego and Mogojo there and

there in the corner.’312

Considering a number of informants who claim that Evaton was peaceful, it appears

that Evaton was a tranquil place possibly with residents who espoused the principle of

reciprocity. In view of the fact that many freehold townships in the Reef were troubled

by urban social ills, such as delinquency, faction fighting, domestic violence, beer

brewing, internal class struggles, sexual experiences of African urban women who

were blamed by white officials for urban disorder. At the same time, the increasing

numbers of Basotho migrants on the mines were beginning to take jobs in the heavy

engineering sector in the towns, and large proportion settled in Evaton. In Evaton, the

Basotho migrants were grouped into two factions, the group of Ralekeke and

Palama.313

The violent behavior and the social impact of the Basotho manifested itself

during the clash that erupted during Evaton bus boycott of 1956. Perhaps informants’

memories of the state of local tranquility are coloured by romanticism. It could be

argued that its tranquility combined with the cooperation among local residents

310

310 Interview with Alf Kumalo, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 15 January 2011, Evaton

311 Report of Native Economic Commission 1930-1932 S. Plaatjie testimony in the UG, 22, Pretoria

Government Printers 312

Interview with Lily Nondala, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 19 September 2010, Evaton 313

Interview with Tladi Kekane, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 20 May 2011

102

attracted urban dwellers that saw Evaton as the island of security against urban

institutional harassment and frustration. In urban spaces where they came from they

were deprived of this kind of environment. However, it is likely that the somewhat

idyllic account of reciprocity and corporation obscure less equal relationship that drew

element of exploitation and monetary ties.

Another pressure on subsistence farming resulted from the natural growth of families.

In order to accommodate this growth, paternal inheritance prevailed in the settlement.

All the male off-spring split the land at each generation and they had to build their

dwellings within the property. At the same time, the geographical mobility of young

males was constrained not only by the availability of land but also by the existing laws

that restricted mobility and the freedom of choosing where one should settle. For

example, William Ndlovu;

When we became young men our father subdivided this property for us, you see

there it’s my brother’s house and it is where we used to plough mealies. We did not

have a choice we had to stay because it was not easy to find places in urban

Johannesburg because of laws.314

There were substantial number of entrepreneurs who bought properties in Evaton, and

most were from the Reef. There were various reasons that pushed these families to

Evaton. One of the common pulling forces was the autonomy that the area enjoyed.

This was coupled with the abundance of land which was available at an affordable

price. These urbanites had means to set up homes there, particularly the entrepreneurs

who were relatively prosperous. Due to the restrictive measures in urban areas that

were implemented in the 1940s, entrepreneurs such as like JCP Mavimbela and Paul

Mosaka struggled to thrive in the municipal locations of Johannesburg.315

They saw

Evaton as an alternative area where they could prosper. In Johannesburg, these

entrepreneurs rendered a valuable service to their communities because they had the

potential of making a profit from their respective enterprises. However, the trade

regulations and policies of local authorities limited their growth. For example, trading

314

Interview with William Ndlovu, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 23 November 2011, Evaton 315

T.D. Mweli Skota, The African Yearly Register, Johannesburg: R.L. Esson and Co. Ltd, 1932; T.D.

Mweli Skota, The African Who's Who, Johannesburg: Central News Agency, 1965

103

sites were allocated on the basis of a quota determined by the number of houses to be

served, and a number of trading sites owned by the council were leased to traders.

Also, municipal laws did not allow traders to have more than one business in the area

and this stifled economic progress.316

In Campbell’s view the lives of these African

business people

suggests the inability of… [these] elite[s] to give… [themselves] any secure material

reality. Buffeted by hostile government legislation, confined to impoverished,

segregated locations, forever starved of capital, the elite was constantly compressed

back into the classes beneath it.317

For the growth of their enterprises, entrepreneurs found the freehold status of Evaton

welcoming. For instance, the ground which they occupied and built their business

premises on belonged to them and could be theirs in perpetuity. They could build,

demolish, rent or sell without any restrictions. Their presence had an impact on the

economic and social dynamics in Evaton. Some, like Mavimbela, commuted to their

businesses in the Johannesburg area from Evaton. He could probably do this because

he could afford to buy a car.318

Among urban entrepreneurs, relocating to Evaton was

seen as politically and economically proactive, and a way of getting around the

oppressive restrictions of municipal townships.319

The relocation of urban entrepreneurs included freehold businessman such as

Mkhwanazi, who came from Sophiatown, and the Nkabindes, who were tenants in

Alexandra. Elizabeth Nkabinde’s family originally came from Natal and had moved to

Alexandra. In Alexandra the Nkabindes opened up a small shop where Dudu worked

for her husband in 1937. When they came to Alexandra, Dudu’s husband taught her

how to run a shop. She recalls,

when we arrived here in the township he taught me how to run the shop I worked

in the shop and he would go and order and he also taught me how to stock the

316

L. Kuper, An African Bourgeoisie: race, class and politics in South Africa New Haven, Yale

University Press, 1965 317

J. T. Campbell, T D Mweli Skota and the making and unmaking of a Black elite, A seminar paper

that was delivered at History Workshop, University of the Witwatersrand, 1987 318

T.D. Mweli Skota, The African Yearly Register, Johannesburg: R.L. Esson and Co. Ltd, 1932; T.D.

Mweli Skota, The African Who's Who, Johannesburg: Central News Agency, 1965. 319

L Reyburn, African Traders and Problems in Johannesburg South Western Townships,

Johannesburg, South African Institute of Race Relations, 1960

104

shop. We would go together to the wholesale. We would also go to Lever

Brothers. 320

It could be argued that small businesses initially required family labour to survive. For

the Nkabindes, marriage provided the couple an opportunity to become self-employed.

He started an under-capitalised business in the form of an unstated partnership

between himself and his wife. Many small businesses were unable to bear the costs of

formally employed labour and started out this way. So, while the role of women in the

domestic sphere was emphasised by communities, their contribution to the family

economy often went unrecognised.

In order to buy property in Evaton, Dudu’s husband was encouraged by his landlord

who related the benefit of owning property in a freehold area. Dudu recalls

Because he liked my husband and they were in good terms, he said; You know what

my son, I enjoy staying with you but I would also like you to have your own place...

So that if you are old you should enjoy in your own place. I don’t mean that I am

chasing you away if you still want to stay and run your business please carry on.321

Entrepreneurs bought property in Evaton in preference to other areas. The weight of

evidence indicates that these entrepreneurs were attracted by business opportunities

and the relative autonomy that Evaton offered. What comes out of Dudu’s testimony

is the fact that her stand was located next to Golden Highway, a main road that linked

Johannesburg and the Orange Free State.

Perhaps population growth was not the sole cause of the decline of subsistence

farming. There were other causes possibly the natural environment, the state policy

and attitude towards freehold areas, as well as poor agricultural development. It is

possible that Evaton like any other settlement became vulnerable to climate change

that was coupled with socioeconomic, demographic, and policy trends limiting their

capacity to adapt to change. Unlike the white commercial farming sector that received

state support, the local small scale farming never received any support from the state.

There was no necessary support services that catered for local agriculture, this

included technical and scientific support that was directed to white farmers. Efforts in

support of the African agriculture was restricted to African reserves where state

320

Interview with Dudu Nkabinde, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 27 September 2010, Evaton 321

Ibid

105

sponsored programmes like the betterment scheme that was designed to arrest and

reverse the destruction of natural resources, improve reserve agricultural production

were officially implemented.322

Long-term sustainability of subsistence economy

depends on the state relief programmes. Dwight Seremi recalls ‘agriculture was

destroyed by drought that was known as leruli, just before the Second World War, that

time access to water became a serious problem and crops died in the field’323

Abel

Nkosi recalled ‘during the Second World War there was drought that was felt by

individual household and the entire community of Evaton, cattle and crops died.’324

It is likely that local agriculture was deliberately neglected by the state because

Evaton’s local economy was not in line with the state labour system. Perhaps this was

the strategy to discourage local farmers from supporting themselves with agriculture

and dependent on neighbouring industries for survival. It is possible that the state was

operating within the broader national framework that was noted in Natal when the

Native Affairs Commissioner complained "The Kafirs are now much more

insubordinate and impatient of control they are rapidly becoming rich and

independent.325

Clearly, this state of affairs in Evaton transformed the settlement from

being an independent enclave into labour reservoir that secured supply of cheap labour

to Vereeniging and Johannesburg. This implied that Evaton experienced a decline of

the number of economical independent residents and the rise of local wage labourers.

It is therefore likely that population growth and the aforementioned factors had a

negative impact towards agricultural development, especially subsistence farming.

While subsistence production has been shown to be important for household food

security, the productivity of smallholder agricultural production declined and was

quite low and in some cases was given as the reason for the abandonment of

agricultural production. Mjikisi Maseko recalls, ‘after the building of rooms we were

left with very small gardens and we could not survive on them as before. This pushed

many people of Evaton to work for ISCOR and other factories.’326

The testimonies of

322

S.M. Ngcaba, The Decline of Rural Agriculture in the Rural Transkei: The Case of Mission Location

in Butterworth, Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Rhodes University, 2002 323

Interview with Dwight Seremi, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 20 March 2011, Evaton 324

Interview with Abel Nkosi, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 25 November 2010, Evaton 325

Quoted in H. Slater, ‘The Changing Pattern of Economic Relations in Rural Natal’, http:// sas –

space. ac.uk/3657/1 326

Interview with Mjikisi Maseko, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 20 March 2011, Evaton

106

many of those who lived in Evaton in the 1940s confirmed the large numbers of local

residents were employed by ISCOR. Johannes Mokoena’s recalls ‘I remember in 1944

I was 12 years old and there were very few buses here. In the morning you will see

many bicycles and donkey drawn carts that transported elderly male to ISCOR.’327

Joseph Lubisi remarked ‘As young as I was I did not have an opportunity of going to

school and I was forced to work at ISCOR I started working there in 1947, I was 17

years old, by then there was no Sebokeng the only township that was there was

Sharpeville which still new and small, and many people whom I worked with were

from Evaton,’328

Much of this employment opportunities was perhaps moulded by the

fact that Evaton was the largest African township in the Vereeniging/Vanderbijlpark

region. With its large population, the township had the potential of providing labour to

ISCOR. The only township that served similar purpose was Sharpeville, but it was

small with stable families with fewer migrants. Another possible factor that led Evaton

to supply large number of labour to ISCOR could be attributed to the relocation of

Top Location. Before the relocation, the town of Vereeniging had its own township

that accommodated the African workforce. In addition, many companies

accommodated their staff which meant that local companies could afford the expense

of building compound for their workforce.329

But many compounds were removed

when inhabitants of Top Location was removed in the 1940s. When Sharpeville was

established, restrictive influx control measures make it difficult for newcomers who

wanted to make entry into the township. The municipal control of Sharpeville

homogenized its residents who shared almost common similar conditions of life.

Unregistered migrants who were attracted by the surrounding industries were

consequently obliged to secure accommodation in the peri-urban settlement of Evaton.

It was these factors, which almost certainly explains why Evaton supplied much of

labour to ISCOR.

Transformation of local residents from agriculture sector to other non-agricultural

sectors was unavoidable and employment in large-scale industries was the sector

which absorbed the growing labour force. The question arises as to what happened to

the group of residents who wanted to maintain their economic independence? How the

327

Interview with Johannes Mokoena, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 16 April, 2011, Evaton 328

Interview with Joseph Lubisi, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 14 July 2012 329

M Chakalson, The Road to Sharpeville, A Seminar Paper presented in the Institute for African

Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, 1986

107

local absorption into wage labour created social differentiation? How the levels of

economic independence differed from one resident to another? The process of

economic independence will be explored largely by means of different life histories.

All these changes meant that Evaton grew rapidly, commodity markets expanded and

the new market emerged. The settlement deviated considerably from the ideal type of

subsistence farming into an urban community that depended on wage labour market.

Agriculture had always been very important for Evaton economy and livelihood. The

decline of subsistence economy implied that local families had to change their means

of livelihood and perhaps what they consumed and they way they consumed it. The

historical significance of this period represents a shift in family economy from

subsistence farming to money based economy. The decline of subsistence economy

left only one alternative open to the local dwellers - the opening of the labour market.

For the local inhabitants who wanted to maintain economic independence venturing

into local entrepreneurship was the only alternative. Local entrepreneurship that

emerged during this period was closely tied to the inner dynamic which local

households and families generated within a context that was increasingly determined

by market and monetary relationships.

The emergence of entrepreneurship

The late 1930s and the early 1940s can be perceived as a watershed in the history of

Evaton’s local economy. This period was marked by fundamental changes that

occurred in food distribution patterns, transport operation and local artisanal

specialisations. This work argues that after the decline of subsistence farming in the

late 1930s, new forms of entrepreneurship in Evaton began to take shape. However,

the rapid growth of neighbouring industries and the government intervention in local

affairs introduced a complex administrative problem and challenges for local

enterprises. These challenges were visible in the local meat industry, shops and in

some artisanal activities, such as shoemaking. For local enterprises, all these

developments impacted on capital, facilities and other resources. Before the decline of

subsistence farming, local entrepreneurship existed in a less recognisable and

essentially formal form which bore little relation to the post-1930s entrepreneurial

environment. The rise of entrepreneurship resulted from the aforementioned

prevailing socio-economic dynamics that emerged during this period. These social and

economic aspects included population growth and the decline of subsistence farming.

108

They facilitated the emergence of new local entrepreneurs and the growth of new

entrepreneurial activities.

The term entrepreneurship is common to the vocabularies of most people today, for

this study the term occupies a prominent position. In the context of Evaton,

entrepreneurship has a special meaning. It could be explained and interpreted within

the context of local, social and economic change. It is by and large explained through

the decline of subsistence economic activity that resulted from the dramatic impact of

industrialization, and urban growth that demanded the emergence of the new local

businesses. For this research agenda, entrepreneurship pertains to any type of local

commercial activity that was creatively innovated for commercial gain. This

commercial activity introduced new good and services that appealed to the community

of Evaton.

The local economic transformation created new forms of economic relations that were

based on monetary ties. The rapid population growth suggests that from the late 1930s

to about 1947 there was a fairly dramatic rise in the levels of consumption. This

period represented quite a different socio-economic character from the subsistence

farming era. It presented a significant change in food consumption and production in

the settlement. Dwight Seremi explains the nature of this economy,

Our agricultural space was reduced by the development of rooms and population

growth and the expansion of the settlement impacted on grazing land. We then

stopped producing crops that we use to get from our garden; it was the beginning of

dependence. Many shops emerged. We started buying things that we used to grow.330

The decline in a subsistence economy introduced change in the local consumer

demands for goods and services as well as in local food supplies which depended on

the frequency of purchase and the type of shops that emerged. It created an adjustment

in consumption and retailing that reshaped economic activities and occupations, and it

also introduced new structures of markets in Evaton. Given the emergence of the new

economic institutions and infrastructure, new values and development goals altered

the lives of the Evatonians.

330

Interview with Dwight Seremi, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 21 June 2011, Evaton

109

This transformation influenced the path to new economic development that was

determined by the emergence of small scale enterprises, mostly grocery stores. These

shops included Barong, Motuba, Moagi, Makgaleme and many others that were

owned by former sharecroppers, educated residents and former labour tenants. It is

possible that venturing into shop-keeping enterprise was an effort to fit within the

changing local environment, or some means to obtain freedom and improve economic

status. In order to achieve this status, some residents like Zebulon Vilakazi applied for

loan with the intention to operate a cartage business from which he expected to

receive approximately £10.0.0 per month.331

For others, it was simply a strategy for

survival. The commercial means they used created and sustained a sense of economic

progress, purpose, and community while they sought integration into South Africa

commercial society. Their stores were smaller, more labour intensive, and located in

neighbourhoods that demanded their services. They were not only small scale in terms

of volume, but also in size of the workforce. For the community of Evaton, these

stores occupied a position of enormous structural and social importance - they were

the large single retail sector that fed the whole community. They determined how

local families would get food. All the inhabitants of Evaton came into contact with

these stores; they undeniably mattered in local people’s lives. Sergeant Pretorius noted

that these shops were not registered, ‘there were no shop ordinances in force, except

the Sunday law.’332

For the first few years of their existence, their management was

not shaped by government policy but independently. The minimal government

intervention enabled local shopkeepers to operate freely.

Attention needs to be given to the changes in food consumption and the levels of

consumer demands, frequencies of purchase and the types of shops used. During the

subsistence period patterns of food demand were characterised by fewer purchases of

food. Reciprocity and non-monetary ties of various kinds such as kinship prevailed.

This social relations of production maintained household reproduction in the

settlement. Small scale intensive labour by family members with simple technology

was sufficient for subsistence. The oral evidence and primary sources does not

331

National Archive of South Africa, A letter for Zebulon Vilakazi application for bond, NTS 376

252/56, 23 June 1948 332

Ibid

110

indicate where and how food was purchased during the subsistence farming period,

but emphasise the persistence of subsistence farming as the main supplier of food in

the settlement. Little is known about the kind of stores that existed. In his publication,

Dr Nhlapo indicated that Rev C. Mokgothu was ‘the first African shopkeeper and

butcher at Evaton.’333

As one of the first residents to buy a stand, his shop and butchery

was established long before 1930. We do not know what kind of foodstuffs and other

commodities were sold in these old shops, and how frequently customers purchased

goods from them. As an enclave in the early part of the twentieth century, Evaton

appeared to be economically diverse with artisans that provided basis for petty

commodity production. The accessibility of different skills made the settlement to be

self sufficient, and the availability of small scale local service centres that provided

only the most basic needs made Evaton to be self-sufficient. The geographical location

and the high costs of transport also contributed to the settlement’s isolation.

In an attempt to describe how Evaton’s subsistence economy was practiced before its

decline, a number of informants tend to emphasize the notion of reciprocity and self

sufficiency. Lily Nondala remarks ‘local residents produced not only food but also

clothing and furniture. All these were exchanged through barter.’334

Agreeing with

Lily, Paul Seshabela reached a similar conclusion: ‘food that was purchased was in

fairly small quantity, ‘we never relied on stores because we had everything we just

bartered. We had basic foodstuff like mabele and vegetables, from shops we would

buy things like sugar but we never used sugar that much’335

Clothing was locally

manufactured and one would buy through agricultural products,’ said Donald Dube.336

A large number of these families were Christians, former productive commercial

farmers under sharecropping arrangement with cultural values and a strong

background of entrepreneurial attitude. As early as 1890s, some of these families

accumulated capital through agricultural markets. At the same time, these families

were different from subsistence cultivators of the earlier period, some were educated

families and were exposed to money economy long before Evaton was established.

333

J. M. Nhlapo, Wilberforce Institute, 334

Interview with Lily Nodala, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 13 June 2011, Evaton 335

Interview with Paul Seshabela conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 21 May 2010, Evaton 336

Interview with Donald Dube, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 22 February 2011, Evaton

111

Before coming to Evaton some of the sharecropping families disposed their surplus to

local storekeepers, merchant and millers. 337

All what these families produced were

valuable resources from which they could earn profit. In the context of rural Highveld,

poorer labour tenants would work for richer sharecroppers in return of bags of

mealies, communal work was sourced from the kinfolks. This is evident in Tim

Keegan’s work who studied sharecroppers in their rural arrangement before relocating

to Evaton. Keegan noted that ‘when the harvest on Zaaiplaas failed in 1895, Emelia

Molefe [who bought property in Evaton]338

and her mother paid an extended visit to

her aunt in Rustenburg…assisting in the harvest and threshing wheat. At the end of the

season, her aunt gave them ten bags of sorghum.’339

Taking into account of the socio-

economic values of the local residents who formed Evaton community - it appear as if

these idyllic accounts downplay unequal social relationship that existed during the

subsistence period. Evaton community was not homogeneous, there were wealthier

and poor residents, and those who were unfortunate possibly worked or provided

service to the richer - this questions the notion of letsema. It is possible that letsema

existed but to a certain extent that accommodated class differentiation. The

informants’ narrative reflects much less on unequal relationship that flourished in

Evaton. It is possible that the community consciousness that emerged in Evaton,

created a situation that members of the community did not recognise themselves as

socially differentiated in terms of class. From the interviews, the gap between

educated and economic class was big, but nostalgia and community bonds that binded

this community together overshadowed this distinction. This social phenomenon urges

us to rethink the concept ‘class’ and its meaning in the minds of community members.

From the outsider’s point of view, class distinction in this community may be

attributed to materialism and accummulation. This raises the question whether did

material possession really matters in the minds of the community. It is possible that

material did not matter that much as the community account reflects on it as

homogeneous. However, class distinction is clearly exemplified by the different

conceptions and opinions between the educated residents and non-educated around

337

T. Keegan, Rural Transformation in industrializing South Africa, Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1986 338

After going through the collection of the Wits African Studies Institute records the author came

across the testimony of Emelia Molefe on the covering page it is indicated that she bought a property in

Evaton. This is even recorded during interviews. 339

T. Keegan, Rural Transformation in industrializing South Africa, Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1986, p. 78

112

local governance. As mentioned, the township did not have formal control. In the

1940s, the question that troubled the central government was the type of control that

was to be implemented in the township. After lengthy meetings and correspondances

there was disagreement between different groups of residents. In a meeting at

Wilberforce Institute held for the purpose of considering the provisions of the

amendement of the Local Authority Act 38 of 1927. About six prominent male

residents under the leadership of Dr Nhlapo and Mqubuli expressed opinion that, ‘it

would be desirable for a local authority to manage the affairs of the community.’340

Because of their expetees and a better understanding of the western way of

administration, the group of educated residents under the leadership of Dr Nhlapo

accepted the proposal. However, the group of less educated class of the community,

particularly ex-sharecroppers opposed the proposal.341

These divergences clearly

illustrate class distinction and local community struggle. Besides, class was vividly

demonstrated by architectural outlook of houses in Evaton. In terms of aesthetic these

houses clearly demonstrate class differentiation. It was by no means that products

were bartered - bartering was possibly practiced among kinsmen and women or

among close family friends. A letter of Zebulon Vilakazi’s bond application supports

this argument, this letter reads as follow; ‘£5.10.0 being board and lodging paid by his

sons. This excludes the income that he obtains from the cultivation of his land.’342

From this evidence, it is clear that some residents sold their agricultural products to

local consumers. This implies that Christian values that some local residents adopted

inculcated the idea of accumulation, improvement and material achievement.

Grocery shops

With the decline of subsistence farming, local residents began to purchase more

foodstuffs like meat, sorghum and other household goods. This period mark the shift

from subsistence economy to money based local economy. This change facilitated the

emergence of new shops and butcheries that became important as suppliers of food.

The appearance of new shops was also facilitated by the increased levels of population

that created greater levels of demands, with the number of consumers doubling as

compared to the subsistence period when population was estimated to be about 12

340

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from the Additional Native Affairs Commissioner to the

Director, 15 October 1943 341

Ibid 342

National Archive of South Africa, A letter of Bond Application for Zebulon Vilakazi, 23 June 1948

113

000.343

Inevitably, the system of supply prompted business minded local residents

like the Motubas to open up new shops that would keep up the pace with the growth of

consumer demand. Many shops were unspecialised general stores. They were major

source of groceries because they had to meet the recurring daily or at most weekly

demands. In his description, Oupa Motuba recalls that these shops were located in the

neighbourhood and so shopping trips were for a short distance and local.

As the number of shops increased, they developed a distinct architectural format, with

fascia boards, hanging signs, projecting or bow windows, and painted boundaries

which delineated the boundaries of the premises and marked them out as retail

shops.344

The shop front advertised the business to the passing public by proclaiming

its fashionable standing and drawing attention to extensive window displays.345

In

terms of labour these stores used family labour. This was the case with the Motuba

family store - family contribution to their store was immense. Daniel recalls that it

circumvented conflict between the role of Mrs Motuba as an entrepreneur and a

housewife. As a mother she was not depressed by the multiple roles, she had to help

my father.’346

The contributions of family as a working unit played an important role

in the smooth operation of these family enterprises. This could be attributed to the

reason why the Motuba’s shop still exists today. In the case of Mary Maseko, a female

shopkeeper, she was assisted by her daughter and her brother.347

The local shops were in direct competition with each other for the attention of

consumers. Many of them commonly sold groceries, but others like the Barolong one,

a general dealer, sold a diverse range of goods.348

One of the commodities that these

shops sold very fast was paraffin and candles. During this period Evaton was not

electrified it only relied on candles and paraffin that served as local fuel. 349

Wood and

343

National Archive of South Africa, Report of the Native Affair Commission, NTS 361/364, 1939 344

Interview with Oupa Motuba, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 12 May 2010, Evaton 345

Interview with Elias Nhlapo, interviewed by Vusi Khumalo, 21 July 2011, Evaton. Interview with

Oupa Motuba conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 23 July 2011, Evaton, 346

Interview with Daniel Motuba, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 23 July 2011 347

Interview with Mary Maseko, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 2 July 2011, Evaton 348

Interview with William Mokwena, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 21 May 2010, Evaton 349

At that time electricity was confined largely to white areas. All African townships lacked electricity

while white suburbs enjoyed the benefits of electricity. This was not right in a country where coal

resources were almost unlimited. An effort was to be made to bring coal in the form of electric light and

power to African townships to brighten homes and for cooking, heating, washing and refrigeration.

114

coal were also used but paraffin was largely used for cooking using a primus stove and

for lights. A primus stove was easy and faster for cooking than firewood. The reason

why migrants and other local workers preferred paraffin was because they did not

have time for coal and wood. Apart from shops, there were also bakeries that supplied

local consumers with bread, cakes and biscuits. One of the most popular bakers was

Mr Pooe who used an underground oven for baking and who was later joined by Mrs

Nkabinde who also made bread, cakes and biscuits.

Due to the lack of archival sources, it is difficult to measure the average number of

customers per shop. However, the greatest increase in shops was associated with food

retailing. Retail enterprises expanded quickly and the larger section of Evaton’s

population in the second half of the twentieth century was able to spend more on food.

As indicated earlier, local autonomy attracted entrepreneurs from municipal townships

and the freehold areas of the Reef. Among these entrepreneurs were Paul Mosaka,

J.C.P Mavimbela, Jabula350

Mkhwanazi and many others. In Evaton, local shop

owners were free to design and develop enough shelving space for their stock. They

could build for themselves without conforming to the standardised plans which

superintendents required in a municipal controlled township.351

There was no need for

the approval of building plans or a waiting period for plan approval as it typically

happened in townships. Interestingly, there was also no stipulated period to complete

the construction of a trading building. Evaton also offered women an opportunity to

own shops. One woman who may be representative was Mary Maseko, the daughter

of Jabula Mkhwanazi, the owner of Vukaphansi Bus Services. Mary took over her

father’s store and expanded it by opening up a restaurant. She also smuggled alcohol.

In those days, many migrants preferred to eat out. For them, it was convenient because

it saved them cooking time. The majority of local wage labour migrants did not have

their families with them and lived and ate their meals in local restaurants and in their

boarding houses. Most of them would not have had cooking facilities and skills.352

Mary’s restaurant sold take away food, and she had space for those who wanted to eat

inside. One of her old customers recalls:

350

T.D. Mweli Skota, The African Yearly Register, Johannesburg: R.L. Esson and Co. Ltd, 1932; T.D.

Mweli Skota, The African Who's Who, Johannesburg: Central News Agency, 1965 351

Urban Trade Regulations, Leo Kuper’s Papers, FI 5854 Roll 1 Microfilm, UNISA 352

Interview with Mary Maseko, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 20 July 2011

115

Mary’s fast food was tasty, and was reasonably of good value, and it was extremely

convenient to eat there because we never had time to cook I mean we would arrive at

home from work at about seven and there was not time for cooking.353

Local economic change appeared to coincide with change in local food consumption.

The overriding question is - are these changes related to changes population

composition shifts that occurred or with the rapid urbanisation that took place in

Evaton. Due to the lack of health records we do not know how change in food

consumption marked shift in health problems and deseases that emerged. These are

This opens up a new gap for a research that needs to be done on local food change.

Changes in food consumption did not only see the emergence of grocery shops but

also meat, fruit and vegetable supplies. However, the supply of green groceries is

difficult to reconstruct due to the lack of archival sources. The only surviving records

indicate that there were middlemen dealing with fresh products. One of the

documented private dealers was R. J. Phooko, who served as a middleman between

the rural producers and urban market product buyers. His exemption application letter

stated that he was a partner in the Native General Agency which was operated by five

‘natives’ who received stock and farm produce from ‘natives’ in the countryside and

sold it in the urban market.354

Phooko’s son James recalls that ‘my father and his

partners never succeeded because greenstuffs were perishable and they never had

refrigerated storage.’355

Other oral evidence indicates that ‘some fruits and vegetable

were bought from the surrounding farms; they were bought in wholesale quantities

and sold in the settlement.’356

Butcheries

One of the most important entrepreneurial activities was butcheries. Local butcheries

were not controlled, and local butchers slaughtered livestock in their backyards

without any official inspection. The slaughter poles were grossly insanitary. Seremi

describe them as ramshackle wood-and-iron structures. Cattle, sheep and pigs were

353

Interview with James Dakile, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 1 April 2011 354

National Archives of South Africa, A letter from R. T. Luther to the Secretary for Native Affairs,

GNLB 273 National Archives of South Africa, 3 April 1917 355

Interview with James Phooko, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 3 July 2010, Katlehong 356

Interview with Oupa Motuba, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 27 July 2011

116

slaughtered by neighbouring boys who were rewarded in a form of offal. 357

Like the

new shops, many butchers appeared during this period and they seem to be the first

specialised shops in Evaton. The supply of meat in Evaton was dominated by

producer-retailers and small scale butchers, such as Dlamini whose family still

operates butchery even today. Many of these butchers like Mokgoju were cattle

dealers who had a long history of dealing with cattle.358

These butchers supplied a

growing number of working class people who were forced to buy meat nearly every

day because of the lack of household refrigeration. The analysis of population growth

and the decline of subsistence farming give us a picture that by the 1940s the meat

supply was under growing demand from the local consumers.

The expanding demand for meat meant that a settlement as large as Evaton was more

and more dependent on local butchers. There was a considerable amount of meat

trading within Evaton to supply the growing number of meat eaters. This was

confirmed by Nhlapo who recalls ‘we never bought meat from outside. Livestock was

easily available in Evaton.’359

The accounts of several local butchers reveal that for

the first five years of the decade of 1940s many retail butchers were making their own

arrangements for slaughtering animals.360

Rodseth, a health inspector, reported that

‘each butchery had its own slaughter place and nobody saw to it’. In other words, they

were not regulated.’361

Agreeing with the health inspector, Isaac Nhlapo indicated that

butcher operations were not regulated. Butchers did as they pleased; their shops were

badly ventilated and there were no fridges. 362

This implies that there were no means

of keeping meat fresh. As a result, butchers contrived to find room on their own shop

premises to do their early morning slaughtering for selling the same day.

These unhygienic practices continued to take place in the homes and shops of the

butchers until the Director of Native Agriculture took note of them in the mid 1940s.

In his struggle for control of this enterprise, the Director wrote,

357

Interview with Dwight Seremi, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 13 June 2010 358

Interview with Absolom Dlamini, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 12 May 2011, Evaton 359

Interview with Isaac Nhlapo, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 20 November 2010, Sebokeng 360

Interview with Absolom Dlamini, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 12 May 2011, Evaton, Interview

with Abel Mokgoju, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 13 May 2012, Evaton 361

National Archive of South Africa Peri Urban Health Inspector Report, NTS 361/ 364, 3 May 1943 362

Interview with Isaac Nhlapo, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 20 November 2010, Sebokeng

117

‘absences of control the police find it impossible to check stock theft, black

market in meat and general lawlessness. At the raid conducted under the

auspices of the Meat Control Board last November six 5 ton lorry loads of beef

illegally slaughtered in Evaton area were removed’363

This letter forced the Peri Urban Health Board to take control over the market. We

shall see in the following chapter how these regulations impacted the local meat

industry.

Transport enterprise

As Evaton was going through a process of urbanisation owing to the high rate of

population growth with an increasing labour force, the demand for more transport was

unavoidable. The availability of well-paying large industries in Johannesburg attracted

the majority of the local workforce who preferred to work in the city. This was

observed by Dr Fourie, a local health inspector in his 1938 report, ‘The majority of

breadwinners whose family resides in the Township are employed either on the Reef

[or in Vereeniging].’364

By the 1940s, very few households owned vehicles in Evaton.

Instead, in many household, there were bicycles, donkeys and horses. Seremi recalls

‘it was the Mbheles, the Ntshalintshalis, the Dlamins and very few other families that

had cars.’365

Because of the distance from Evaton to Johannesburg and other industrial

centres like Vereeniging, local residents had no choice but to use some form of

transport to get to work on time. The only available means of transport was the train.

Seremi recollects;

By then Johannesburg was very far because trains were slow and local residents did not

go to Johannesburg regularly, there were no taxis some elders would cycle to

Johannesburg, going there it was a really long trip, by then almost every household had

the bicycle, we also used them when we go to Evaton station.’366

In the absence of local support from the central government, the development of a

transport business in Evaton was primarily due to the initiative of the residents

363

National Archive of South Africa, Director of Native Agriculture’ s report on slaughter facilities

NTS 361/364, 1947 364

National Archive of South Africa, Report of the Inspection at Evaton Native Township, NTS 361-

364, 9 September 1938 365

Interview with Dwight Seremi, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 2 July 2012, Evaton 366

Ibid

118

themselves. This does not ignore that the government introduced railway services that

could transport locals to respective destinations. The availability of the train was not

sufficient as the only means of transport that ferried the growing number of workforce

to industrial centres. Train services had to be supplemented by bus and taxi service

which were only introduced in the late 1930s. This gap became an opportunity for

some vehicle owners who opened up new commercial activities of transporting

residents from their homes to their workplaces. These owners offered their services

and transported local residents backwards and forwards to nearby towns and cities.

Two aspects of this are of particular interest. Firstly, the pioneers of transport

enterprises tended to be former sharecroppers and independent farmers. And secondly,

they had a long history of enterprising, Mbhele, for example, was a transport rider in

Newcastle367

and Mkhwanazi was a hotelier in Sophiatown.368

The autonomy that

Evaton offered for this operation and the financial rewards attracted other operators

such as Derbyshire,369

a coloured man from Kliptown who bought property from

James Kunene for 100 pounds in 1928.370

These entrepreneurs operated in a laissez-faire environment. Mjikisi recalls ‘they

would overload their cars and buses.’371

They also used family labour, as it was the

case with Mkhwanazi, the owner of Vukaphansi Bus Service, who used her daughter

Mary to sell tickets. Most of these bus operators experienced difficulty in maintaining

their vehicles. According to Mary,

…the reason why my father company’s fell was the fact that he bought old buses,

and there were number of breakdowns, we would wake early in the morning and

367

Interview with Oupa Motiba, conducted by Vusi Khumalo 23 July 2011, Evaton 368

Interview with Mary Maseko, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 12 June 2011, Evaton 369 Little is known about Derbyshire’s venture because coloureds were dislocated by the Group Areas

Act during the establishment of segregated townships such as Eldorado Park, Roshnee and other areas.

Moreover, there are no archival sources that present his story. The existing evidence of Derbyshire’s

entrepreneurial activity could only be sourced from residents who knew his operations. The only

evidence about him was presented by John Maseko who recalled that, ‘His buses ferried people from

Evaton to Johannesburg and they stopped in Kliptown where they filled up gasoline and then drove

people to the city. He was rich because he had other properties in Kliptown. He was also a member of

Catholic Church he attended the church next to Mekus house’

370 National Archive of South Africa, A letter from McCrobet and De Villiers Attorneys to the

Secretary for Native Affairs dated NTS 376 252/56, 16 February 1930

371

Interview with Mjikisi Maseko, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 20 April 2010, Evaton

119

push the bus. This led to irregularity of service sometimes the bus will work and

sometime not’372

Because the bus operation was not enough to cater for the growing population of

Evaton, there was a need for a taxi operation that would supplement bus services. The

introduction of taxis373

in Evaton represented a change in the history of local transport.

This industry was well received by local commuters and was strengthened by the

perception that it was community based. Mbhele, the innovator of this enterprise, was

well known among the commuters. Daniel Motuba recounts,

...my grandfather J J Mbhele was in what is called ISCOR now in Newcastle that was

his farm. It was Kokspruit.... he did farming there, and he was running transport on a

wagon which was pulled by fourteen... He used to park at the Newcastle station at

twelve o’clock, between twelve and one, and the train used to come in from Joburg

and he would collect goods from there374

Apart from ferrying the local population to work, the demands of population growth

also required transport for health related services. The freehold status of Evaton meant

that it was deprived of similar services such as ambulances that were provided by the

municipality in other African townships. In an emergency, there were no ambulances

that could transport residents to a hospital. Taking an advantage of this gap, ‘Liphoko

exploited this opportunity by converting his taxi into an ambulance that catered for the

larger Evaton population.’375

At the time, Evaton had no hospital. In cases of serious

illness, Dr White, the former principal of Wilberforce, wrote in his memoirs ‘we

called doctors from Vereereniging. Their fee was three pounds…whenever possible

we would take the sick student to his or her home. Sometimes, students were taken to

Johannesburg city hospital.’376

The only health facility that was available was

Crogman Clinic which catered for primary health care. The Clinic was built by Bishop

Wright in the late 1930s. It is where Dr Xuma occasionally served as the medical

372

Ibid 373

ibid 374

Interview with Oupa Motuba, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 28 July 2011, Evaton 375

Ibid 376

A. J. White and L. White, Dawn in Bantuland: An African Expiriment or An Account of Missionary

Expiriences and Observation in South Africa, Boston, Christopher Publishing House, 1953

120

officer. The clinic was under the administration of the AME Church and was attached

to Wilberforce Institute.377

The nearest hospital was in Vereeniging, but it catered for whites and had only

a very small section for Africans. Before Baragwanath opened up in 1947, Evaton’s

residents preferred to use the Johannesburg Native Hospital. This might be the reason

why Liphoko opened up an ambulance service.378

His ambulance service operated

until the mid-1950s when the government reorganisation of local entrepreneurship

structure reached its peak. During this period, private ambulance services were

inhibited by government intervention which monopolised it.

Skills related enterprise

From its formation in 1905, Evaton, like other freehold areas on the Reef, was

exceptionally diverse, not only in terms of the origins of its people, but also in its

different classes and categories. The largest category in the early years was former

sharecroppers who came from different parts of the country. There were other

educated residents and all these residents, including sharecroppers, were skilled in

different vocational specialities. The majority of these residents were Christians and

they were taught skills and values appropriate to the nuclear family structure and a

division of labour characteristic of pre-industrial England. Women were taught to sew

and cook and men received instruction in artisanal specialisations. 379

With a larger

population, the demand for skilled services in their own workshops increased. These

artisans sold their goods in their little stores and workshops. For instance, Nxumalo

repaired and sold bicycles from his small workshop.380

This local economic

transformation fills a gap in our historical understanding on how the interdependent

processes of specialisation unfolded on the ground. During this process, local artisans,

retailers and consumers all played important roles in shaping the new emerging local

economy of the area, and artisans took advantage of their specialisations.

377

Historical Papers, University of the Witwatersrand, Crogman Clinic Committee minutes, Xuma

Papers, AD 843, 1945 378

Interview with Daniel Motuba, conducted by Vusi Khumalo 26 May 2011, Evaton 379

S. Mentjes, Edendale 1850-1906 : a case study of rural transformation and class formation in an

African mission in Natal, PhD thesis, University of London,1988 380

Ibid

121

By then, specialisation and artisanal work was more complementary to investments

embodying new technology rather than unskilled labour, and so capital accumulation

and technological change favoured skilled over unskilled labour. Locally, skills

captured what local residents needed for the development of their homes. For instance,

Maseko noted that, ‘by this time many residents extended their dwellings because

families were expanding and others rented rooms out to migrant worker, so the service

of bricklayers became important.’381

Due to the lack of archival sources we do not

know how many artisans operated in Evaton. We do not know whether they did well

or not. But oral accounts indicate that with the growth of population, some artisans

prospered though their prosperity was inhibited by the impact of technology, the

increase in mechanisation and industrialisation of different specialisations.382

This situation was worsened by the tightening of pass laws that restricted African

movement in South Africa in the late 1940s. These laws increasingly limited artisanal

service to the immediate vicinity of Evaton as artisans had to adjust their methods of

production and produce suitable goods that met the needs of local residents. They

could not move to other centres where they could serve other communities. Dan

Mofokeng recalls ‘my uncle who was a bricklayer was sometimes given contracts in

Johannesburg where he worked independently but after pass laws he could not.’383

Among those who prospered was Makhene, a brick maker. During the time when new

rooms were built in the Small Farms, many stand holders bought bricks from him.384

The impact of industrialisation was felt by Makhene and other brick makers when

Vereeniging Brick and Tile Company was established. According to Paul Seshabela,

‘Brick and Tile wanted to employ Mr Makhene and he refused’.385

The impact of

industrialisation was also felt by many shoemakers who saw their livelihoods being

destroyed, but several crafts, especially the construction trades, were largely

unaffected by changes during this period. Plumbers, plasterers, and imperial furniture

makers thrived. Plastering remained almost the same from the pre-1940 period until

the introduction of prefabricated laths in the 1950s. Many members of the builders’

381

Interview with Mjikisi Maseko, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 27 July 2011, Evaton 382

Interview with Dwight Seremi, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 21 May 2010, Evaton 383

Interview with Dan Mofokeng, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 30 June 2010, Soweto 384

Ibid 385

Interview with Paul Seshabela, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 23 July 2010, Evaton

122

guild like Seremi prospered from this enterprise. Among the builders who were doing

well were Bloke Maseko, Rapodile and Tswagong and Dwight Seremi’s father, who

built the school in Sharpeville location. Mamasile, on the other hand, specialised in

roofing. He was an expert in scotch roofing. In the 1940s, the guild of builders and

many other artisans benefited from the Native Trust Fund and its building

legislation.386

It was these African-run enterprises that built the new segregated

townships like Sharpeville. Although shoemakers struggled, Abel Meku, for example,

specialised in shoemaking but his career was affected by the decline of local cattle

slaughtering and cattle keeping. For his shoe manufacturing he relied on local hide

suppliers, mostly butchers. Moreover, capital requirements for the daily running of his

enterprise became expensive. He had to pay for transport and travel to remote areas

where he could get hides. 387

For Meku and other local artisans, local industrialization

adversely affected the advancement of their enterprises. Abel Nhlapo recalls, ‘During

industrialization the great majority of artisans found work in large factories like

ISCOR, Steel Works either as foremen or in skilled manual positions’388

Women hawkers

Another group of Evaton entrepreneurs, particularly women, operated their

entrepreneurial activities outside of Evaton. These women, who could be regarded as

itinerant traders or hawkers, were involved in trade in areas familiar to them like

nearby farms and cities. These women sold a variety of products such as vegetables,

eggs and chicken and other non-farm products in Johannesburg. It appears that the

local women entrepreneurs emerged to occupy a niche that was opened up by the

inadequacies of the then existing food supply in Johannesburg. In the recorded history

of food supply in Johannesburg, the market is well covered, but other distributors like

hawkers seem to have largely gone unnoticed or perhaps records were not kept.389

Opportunities for the kind of extensive small-scale entrepreneurship in which Evaton

women began to specialize thrived in Johannesburg. It was long before municipal

control extended pressure on African traders, particularly coffee cart street traders in

386

Interview with Paul Seshabela, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 21 May 2010, Evaton 387

Ibid 388

Interview with Abel Nhlapo, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 21 May 2012, Evaton 389

Ibid

123

Johannesburg.390

From oral sources it is difficult to establish why local women

ventured into entrepreneurship. It is therefore interesting to speculate on the reasons

that gave rise to this degree of entrepreneurial activity. Because employment

opportunities for women were largely non-existent in the early urban economy, it is

possible that they ventured into entrepreneurship because they wanted to be

economically independent.

In the late 1930s, there were relatively few women who sold farm products in

Johannesburg. In this rough and gritty urban space, men greatly outnumbered women

until rural poverty forced greater numbers of women into the city.391

There were few

women in the city and the majority of African women were involved in beer brewing.

In those years their business thrived because the population of consumers was high in

Johannesburg. These women generated relatively high profits out of this enterprise.

Dwight recalls that; ‘through this enterprise our mothers made more money than our

fathers, I mean they had money. On Fridays they will bring us fish and chips, clothes

and other nice things’. 392

Dwight’s account is supported by Christina who recollects,

‘Fridays we would eat meat and enjoy when they come back from Johannesburg393

Christina Meku’s grandmother and her friends, including Dwight Seremi’s and Paul

Seshabela’s mothers, were hawkers. They sold their farm products in the rich white

suburbs of Johannesburg. Christina recalls;

I was still at school and my grandmother would go and fetch chickens from a farm in

the west that belonged to Mr. Van Vuuren, which would be done on Fridays. We would

then slaughter the chickens and clean them, she didn’t work alone, there were other

ladies working with her; this one lady who has passed on too, her kids sold their place,

her name was Gogo Mngomezulu, and another lady Gogo Mokgeli, she too passed, also

her kids sold the place, I think it is the grand child who was left there.394

Christina further recounted how her grandmother and other hawkers reached

Johannesburg

390

C. Rogerson, The Casual Poor of Johannesburg, South Africa: the Rise and Fall of Coffee-Cart

Trading. Ph.D Thesis, Queen's University, Ontario, Canada, 1983 391

C, Burns, ‘Controlling Birth 1920-1960’ Southern African Historical Journal , Vol 50, 2004, pp,

170-198 392

Interview with Dwight Seremi, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 13 October 2011, Evaton 393

Interview with Christina Meku, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 4 May 2011, Evaton 394

Ibid

124

There was a garage behind the BMSC, the taxi would park there and the ladies would

then go on in different directions to sell, my grandmother sold mostly in Lower

Houghton, she had pre-placed orders and would just deliver them, I was schooling at St

Peters at time then.395

In Johannesburg the only place where farm products were sold was the market where

prices were higher than what Evaton hawkers charged. The early morning market was

for bulk-buying for dealers, hotels and restaurants, and the mines. There are later

indications that the market was open to the public after 9 am.396 Evaton female

hawkers delivered products to the doorstep. This was time convenient and a saving for

local residents who wanted to avoid paying for transport from Market Square to the

suburbs. These women had information about market and prices, and they knew who

the buyers were and how to contact them.

The involvement of these hawkers in Johannesburg’s economy draws our attention to

the neglected issue of how Johannesburg was fed. Where and by whom was food

produced, and how was it transported and distributed. Cripps has noted that there are

no records that tell us where the people who fed Johannesburg came from. She further

states that there is considerable information in contemporary newspapers and in

accounts by visitors and pioneer recollections, although those dealt mainly with only a

section of the population (whites only).

Apart from foodstuffs some hawkers like Sonto’s grandmother sold other items. Sonto

recalls,

The family also sold brooms and clothing that my grandmother made. We would

walk around Evaton selling these goods, some we called dress and n' coat. During the

December holidays we would sell clothes which included beanies, brooms and straw

mats...every day we were selling, at times on our way to school she would be out with

five or ten brooms to go sell...There were many other dress-makers and a lot of other

people who were selling too. There was a lot of trading going on, one would sell an

395

ibid 396

E. A. Cripps, Provisioning Johannesburg, Unpublished MA thesis, University of South Africa, 2012

125

item to one person and buy another item from someone else another person...397

Hawking was not exclusively a women’s domain. There were also male hawkers like

Gilman Nkutha, a former sharecropper from Transvaal who enjoyed a long history of

economic independence. Before venturing into door to door sales, Nkutha operated a

small poultry business. He reared chickens and sold eggs, chicken and chicken

feathers for pillow making. Nkutha’s daughter, Thembi, recalled,

‘My father would go to Johannesburg market in Newtown to sell chickens to the

market. My mother who also sold other products will join local women who traded

in Johannesburg.’398

Nkutha’s family was business-minded; Mrs Nkutha was a basket maker and one of a

group who hawked their wares in Johannesburg. In Johannesburg she sold baskets and

other craft works and made traditional dresses that she sold for local weddings.399

The

poultry business moved slowly locally, and transport from Evaton to Johannesburg

became expensive. On the other hand, it was not easy to sell chicken and eggs in

Evaton because many households kept chickens. After realising that the poultry

business was slow-moving, he switched to the livestock trade, which became

problematic when grazing land dwindled due to increased population density. When

Nkutha ventured into livestock, the area was already experiencing a shortage of

grazing space forcing residents to hire space in the surrounding white farms.400

Mr

Engelbrecht, who owned one of the farms, was prepared to lease his grazing land for

£100 per annum.401

These impediments led Nkutha to venture into the clothing business. Thembi recalls:

‘my father did not know how to sew clothes, so he was taught by my cousin. This

business became lucrative and my father made lot of money.’402 Starting in 1941, with

397

Interview with Sonto Kekane, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 1 April 2011 398

Interview with Thembi Nkutha, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 12 May 2010 399

Interview with Thembi Tshabangu, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 12 May 2011 400

A letter from Secretary/Treasurer to the Provincial Secretary dated 12 August 1946. The author

received a copy of this letter from Tladi Kekane’s private collection. For reference purpose it will be

stored at the archives of the Wits History Workshop at the Origins Centre, University of the

Witwatersrand. 401

A letter from Mr Schwarzer to the Director of Native Labour 18 January 1938 402

Interview withThembi Nkutha, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 12 May 2010

126

a little cash he was able to expand his enterprise ‘when he started he used a bicycle.

He later used the profit that he generated to buy a Chevrolet van.’403

Perhaps what

made Nkutha’s clothing enterprise thrive was the remoteness of the areas that he

targeted. He sold in the rural Free State and Transvaal. In those years, the parts of the

Orange Free State and Transvaal where Nkutha conducted his business could be

described as the ‘wilderness’ with very small hamlets that did not adequately cater to

local African communities. In these towns, transport was scarce and it was expensive

for the farming community to reach urban centres. These areas offered an opportunity

for Nkutha’s commercial establishment because he was not competing with other

sellers and his goods were in high demand.

‘People asked him to buy them things such as radios, torches, batteries, household

appliance and many other goods that were not available on the farms,’ recalled

Thembi 404

He would give them by credit at the end of the month; in some instances

he would collect money seasonally because some farmers paid their labourers that

way. He gave credit on the basis of trust, with no legally binding documents. Failure

to repay debts - which was unusual - meant exclusion from the credit network.

Nkutha operated this enterprise for more than ten years. He stopped because of his

advanced age and opened up butchery instead. In the following chapter we shall see

how the implementation of regulatory measures that governed local enterprise stifled

Nkutha’s entrepreneurial progress

Conclusion

The arrival of newcomers played an important role in the recovery of the old

entrepreneurial habits which were overshadowed by the acquisition of stands and the

local subsistence farming. Population growth also helped the former sharecroppers to

venture into new entrepreneurial activities and prolong their economic independence.

It could be inferred that when entrepreneurial opportunity presented itself, many

entrepreneurs were on the verge of losing their economic independence. Industries

were mushrooming, grazing land and agricultural space was dwindling, and there were

403

Ibid 404

Ibid

127

no other means of livelihood that local entrepreneurs could rely on except for selling

their labour to the surrounding factories. The arrival of newcomers could be seen as a

form of relief which indirectly comforted former independent farmers and

sharecroppers by preventing them from losing their lifelong livelihoods.

It can therefore be argued that the distinctiveness of Evaton lies in the fact that the

area offered a space where former sharecroppers could at least maintain or rather

prolongs their economic independency. It offered a space for resisting the labour

market which affected many African people as early as the 1920s. Most importantly,

the area provided women the freedom of creativity that expressed itself through

accumulation. Local women were never confined to the kitchen. They were

independent and in many cases they generated more income than their husbands. But

this chapter reveals that Evaton women viewed the world through independent lenses.

However, the growth of local industries and the intervention of the central government

in local affairs introduced complex administrative problems that the unrecognised pre-

1930 businesses did not experience. The changing development in administration as

we have seen with butcheries presented a serious problem that inhibited the growth of

local entrepreneurship. Changes in organisational structure of butcheries were

intimately related to the ways in which enterprise had to expand. Apart from

government intervention, the National Party’s political role which strengthened pass

laws that restrained the movement of Africans impacted negatively on the local

enterprise. For example, the group of women who sold their products in Johannesburg

were forced to abandon their enterprises.

128

Chapter 4

Transition from unregulated to regulated trade

Introduction

The process of industrialization in both Vereeniging and the Reef presented an

important turning point in the history of local economy in Evaton. The development of

new industries attracted many rural Africans to urban industrial centres where there

were greater opportunities of employment. This process correlated with the

intensification of legislative frameworks and administrative procedures that regulated

African life, including African entrepreneurial activities in urban areas. Since the early

1920s, African entrepreneurial activities in urban areas were regulated by the 1923

Urban Areas Act, but regulations were not rigidly enforced.405

In those years, urban

African entrepreneurship was not in the spotlight. African entrepreneurs could trade

freely in segregated white central business districts that later became predominately

white. After the outbreak of the Second World War there was a rapid influx of the

population into urban areas. This urged the state to amend the 1923 Urban Areas Act

in the 1940s, and grant local authorities more powers. As a result, local authorities

strictly enforced influx control and tightened African access to entrepreneurship in

urban areas.

Between 1943 and 1944 construction of new African housing declined in municipal

controlled location.406

The rapid growing population mostly sub-tenants crowded into

freehold settlements which fell outside of municipal control. The overcrowding of

freehold areas was intensified by pass laws. In 1943, for instance, the state ordered the

405

L. Kuper, African Bourgeoisie 406

P. Morris, A History of Black Housing in South Africa, Johannesburg, South African Foundation,

1981

129

police to conduct pass in which 13 000 Africans were arrested.407

In addition, the state

changed its attitude towards freehold settlements. Equally significantly, white pressure

groups pressurized the state to remove freehold areas that surrounded white

suburbs.408

This was evident when health authorities and interested departments of the

central government held joint discussions with white pressure groups where the future

of freehold areas was discussed. The aim of these deliberations was to institute system

of control or to remove many freehold settlements, such as Sophiatown. Out of these

considerations health and local entrepreneurship became one of the central issues.

This led to the establishment of License Boards that controlled entrepreneurial

activities in different freehold settlements. In this context, it is difficult to separate

micro-economic development of respective freehold settlement from the broad socio-

economic and political processes of the post Second World War period.

In Evaton, the genesis of regulations that controlled local entrepreneurial activities

could be linked to the rapid increase of migrant sub-tenants. The presence of migrants

was twofold. Firstly, it provided a market for aspiring entrepreneurs who saw the

presence of large population of newcomers as an opportunity to open up new different

forms of enterprises. Secondly, it placed Evaton in the spotlight, which prompted the

state to extend its control and regulate local enterprise. In this chapter, the nexus

between population growth and the evolution of local entrepreneurship, as well as the

extension of urban legislative framework into Evaton will be examined. The better

understanding of the different stages of local entrepreneurial evolution will contribute

to our understanding of the local administrative changes that took place in 1940s.

These changes impacted on the historical shift from unregulated to regulated

commercial enterprise. More than anything else, it is the analysis of these complex

historical processes that makes it essential for this chapter to reconstruct the history of

local entrepreneurship.

The discussion proceeds in three parts. The first part broadly deals with the policy that

controlled African entrepreneurship in urban South Africa from 1920 to 1950s. The

second section of the chapter concentrates on the evolution of local trade from 1905 to

407

Ibid, p. 36 408

D Van Tonder, ‘First Win the War, The Clear the Slums, The Genesis of the Western Removal

Scheme, 1940-1949,’ Unpublished paper presented at the History Workshop, University of the

Witwatersrand, 1990

130

1940s. This part traces the trajectory of local enterprises from the time when Evaton

was sparsely populated to the period of mass population relocation and rapid

economic differentiation. The final section of the chapter focuses on the control of the

local entrepreneurial activities. It examines the implementation of the new

entrepreneurial regulations in Evaton and reveals how this initiative was associated

with public safety, health, morals, and welfare.

Policy towards African enterprise

There was an underlying legislation that governed African entrepreneurship in South

Africa. In order to have a better understanding of Evaton entrepreneurship, it is

important to draw attention to institutional framework as an important focus of

analysis. The examination of the state institution and laws that governed African

entrepreneurship provides us with a framework within which entrepreneurial activities

operated. In South Africa as in other countries, the state determined how

entrepreneurship should operate. It struggled to control entrepreneurial activities

which characterised market, products to be sold and accumulation interest, all this was

embedded in state policy. Generally speaking, the aim of the state entrepreneurial

policy is to regulate business activities, provide support to new and small firms. This

was to be achieved in a form of information, advice, training, or finance to new

enterprises.409

Entrepreneurship is a major source of job creation, innovation and

competitiveness. It is therefore the government’s task to promote these characteristics

in order to enhance the welfare of its citizens.

Before 1923, there was virtually no law that regulated African entrepreneurship,

Africans traded independently without any government intervention. In a broad sense,

African entrepreneurship was much freer before the 1920s, than it became in the later

years. While introduction of the new trade legislation was shaping up, important

changes were taking place in South African urban areas. These changes included the

shortage of housing, the overcrowding of urban spaces, and town-wards movement of

poor whites and Africans. At the same time, the state committed itself to the

curtailment of the potential development of African agriculture and sharecropping

409 R. Sternberg and S. Wennerkers, The Effect of Business Regulations on Nascent and Young

Business Entrepreneurship, Small Business Economics, 2007 (28)

131

enterprise that gave Africans economic independency - this pushed many Africans to

towns. In towns, infrastructural development, such as road and railway construction

demanded labour, this was in tandem with the expansion of mining, as well as the

emergence of secondary industries. As a result, the high demand of labour pressed the

state to tackle the manifold problems which stemmed from these socio-economic

dynamics. With an attempt to solve this predicament authorities sought to create urban

areas as the white area while alienating Africans to the environment.410

In this context,

the legislation that regulated African enterprise was created within this broader

institutional framework. This policy became part of the Urban Area Act of 1923, it

never stood on its own. The clause of the legislation reads as follow;

Any urban authority which has under administration and control any location or native

village may

(a) Let sites within the location or native village for trading or business purpose

(b) Prohibit hawking within the location or native village and

(c) Prohibit the carrying on any business within the location or native village in any

other place than a site rented for trading or business purpose. Provided that-

(i) No site shall be let under paragraph (a) to a person who is not a native; and no

person who is not a native shall be employed on a site so let; but

(ii) If the Minister is satisfied that the reasonable needs of the native residents are

not met by business establishment on such sites, the urban local authority may

carry on within the location or native village the business of a general dealer,

butcher, baker or eating house keeper and open such shops and do all such things

as may be necessary for that purpose.411

The clauses quoted above appeared to be reluctant to assume equal business

opportunities for all South African racial groups. This Act influenced new direction of

African entrepreneurship that reorganized and formalized African enterprise into

retail. It limited African businesses to general dealer, butcher, baker or eating house

keeper and to the certain range of commodities sold. Africans could only sell

consumer good needed for daily use. This made African entrepreneurs to realize they

were in locations only temporarily. This guaranteed whites entrepreneurs a monopoly

of trading with manufactured goods, as well as running financial industries like

insurance and banks in urban market. This monopoly was enforced by law it denied

410

M. Swanson, Urban Origins of Separate Development, African Studies, 1976 411

Native Urban Area Act of 1923, Government Printers UG 22, 1923

132

Africans an opportunity to exploit commercial opportunities at all times. Africans who

wanted to venture into financial or manufacturing industry were denied that

opportunity. This was clearly demonstrated by the letter that was written by

Broomberg Graaf and Karb, the firm of lawyers that represented one of the unkown

African applicants. The letter reads as follow, ‘Apart from the above the further

important consideration that an undertakers and insurance business is not one of the

services which need necessarily be provided in the white area by a Bantu

entrepreneur.’412

It was not easy for Africans to venture into manufacturing industry,

those who ventured into furniture industry experience difficulties in acquiring permit

for buying timber from timber-yards. The purchase of timber was under the control of

the Ministry of Labour, which directed the Controller of Timbers office. This is

revealed by the letter that was written by the Director of Native Labour to Dr Xuma

who represented Aaron Mokete and J Mtimkulu who were both applying for the

permit to purchase. The letter reads as follow;

With reference to your letter of the 21st March last, and subsequent telephonic

communication regarding the application of Aaron Mokete and J Mtimkulu for permits to

purchase timber for the manufacture of furniture, I have now been requested by the

Controller of Timber to obtain fresh application forms from each of the two applicants

concerned

As I am not in possession of the addresses of these two men, I shall appreciate it if you

will kindly contact them, and advise them each to complete fresh application forms and

forward these to me for transmission to the Controller.413

There were many regulations that prevented Africans from entering into

manufacturing. These regulations emphasized the importance of context and of our

understanding on how Africans were pushed into labour market. Perhaps, most

importantly, they illustrate the complexities of the combination of entrepreneurial laws

and urban control. In this framework, the control of African entrepreneurship was

enforced by means of open and veiled regulations, as well as by-laws and trade

licenses which formed the web of authority. The central government gave the local

412

Wits Historical Papers, A letter from the Secretary for Bantu Administration and Development to

Messrs. Broomberg Graaf and Karb, SAIRR collection, AD 843 RJ file F1, 18 December 1961 413

Wits Historical Papers, A letter from Director of Native Affairs to Dr Xuma, Xuma Papers AD 843,

ABX 440706, 6 July 1944

133

authorities power and the right to control, supervise trade and impose licenses on

specific activities such as general dealing within the areas of jurisdiction. In the case

of Transvaal, the authority was expressly delegated to the Province of Transvaal by

the then Governor General.414

Local authorities were empowered to make by-laws

that controlled matters related to local entrepreneurship, including issuing and

cancellation of licenses and taxation. Local authorities were authorised to establish

rules and procedures that governed licensing - they also registered businesses. The

limitation of African entrepreneurs to sell goods that met daily needs raises the

question why the Act pushed Africans into small scale retail activities while

suppressing service and manufacturing sector enterprise. This legislation devalued

African skills in the face of rapid industrial development. In the clause of the Act

there is nothing recorded that relates to service enterprise or manufacturing? Was this

a deliberate systematic and institutionalized action to exclude Africans from

manufacturing, craft related and service enterprise? However, it is not the purpose of

this chapter to interrogate these questions? Proceeding from these questions would

limit this chapter’s focus and content to the analysis of the purpose of the Act.

As informal housing grew in the urban outskirts of different urban areas in South

Africa, African entrepreneurs’ battled over trade space. At the same time, the

heightening intensity of slum clearance scheme pushed them to municipal townships.

The Urban Areas Act of 1923 officially divided municipal townships along the racial

groups.415

African traders were confined to locations and whites to central business

districts of cities and towns. The Act afforded only temporary status to Africans

migrants and entrepreneurs in urban areas. Many urban entrepreneurs were faced with

issues relating to residential permits. These issues were coupled with the fact that each

entrepreneur had to comply with urban business administration conditions that

required trader’s application for trade. As a result, urban African entrepreneurship

became fragile - traders became uncertain about their long term residential status in

urban locations. In turn, this impacted negatively on the development of their

businesses. The temporary status kept African businesses small and isolated with

racially designated customers.416

African businesses never enjoyed white, Indian or

414

Ibid 415

M. Swanson, Urban Origins 416

S.M.S. Keeble, The expansion of Black Business

134

coloured clientele in segregated settlements. This official segregation became

unfavourable to their growth. It also became detrimental to entrepreneurs who wanted

to trade in African locations. From 1923 onwards, obstructive attitude was adopted by

white municipal authorities to aspiring African traders and this was the main source of

complaint which crystallized into political action.417

Under these adverse trade

conditions there was a need for African entrepreneurs to form an association that

would represent their grievances to authorities. One of the active representative

organizations that were formed was Bantu Traders in Bloemfontein with 123

members.418

This association was headed by Thomas Mapikela the one of the ANC

members. In 1932, a Bantu Business League was formed in Natal with Rev Dube as

president. After the visit of JCP Mavimbela’s and other members of the Orlando

Traders Association to Salisbury where they attended conference that was organized

by Rhodesian African Traders, the organization addressed interest of African

entrepreneurs was formed in the 1950s. This organization adopted the name

Federation of African Chamber of Commerce which later renamed NAFCOC. In this

way, the demand for trade rights became an integral part of African political struggle

in urban areas.

As African buying power white entrepreneurs who wanted to trade in African

townships could not trade because of legislative restrictions. Although African buying

power was constantly increasing because of the growth of industries in urban areas the

terms of the Urban Areas Act of 1923 which declared urban areas as white area

limited growth of these enterprises. When this Act was amended into the Native

Urban Areas Consolidation Act in the 1940s, African entrepreneurship subjected to

even more stringent control because more powers were given to local authorities, and

legal force was felt by many African entrepreneurs all over South Africa. Local

authorities ‘…were directed to move these Africans to areas where they were legally

allowed to operate. This move affected about 160 licensed traders in Johannesburg,

121 in Cape Town and a large number in Durban.’419

With an attempt to justify

government action, the Secretary of Native Affairs wrote ‘it was against government

policy for Africans to trade in areas set aside for other groups. They had however

417

A. Cobley, Class and Consciousness 418

Ibid 419

Ibid, p. 38

135

fullest… in their own area where they would have fullest opportunity...where they

would obtain an exclusive monopoly.’420

The national displacement of African traders

included coffee carts operators who catered for African workers in Johannesburg. It

should be noted that the policies of racial segregation applied in South Africa

precluded African patronage of the variety of restaurants, cafes, snack bars, and like

feeding establishments that proliferated in Johannesburg to serve the demands of the

white factory or office worker.421

Similar to 1923 Urban Areas Act the amended Act

emphasised ‘lawful occupation.’ This Act emphasised that ‘the superintendent could,

with the approval of the Minister issue a permit if he was satisfied that’

(a) a suitable site was available in the area set aside for ethnic group to which black belonged

(b) The applicant was fit and proper person to reside in the area

(c) The applicant was lawfully permitted to remain in the area in terms of section 10 (1) (a)

or (b) of the 1945 Act

(d) If the applicant was already the registered occupier in that particular area or any other

urban area, undertook that on the issue of the permit he agreed to the cancelation of the

existing permit or certificate

(e) the applicant, or his wife, was not a foreign Black as defined in section 12 of the Act

(f) The applicant was financially able and willing to erecet a dwelling of the required

standard

(g) The applicant should be free of infectious diseases422

South African urban historical research has provided a clearer understanding of these

developments.423

The amended Act was intertwined with housing policy, urban 'native

administration,' tribalism and influx control and movement. This law emphasized

ethnicity and the power of superintendent. This legal measure could be best

understood as the official mechanism specific to South Africa in the period of

secondary industrialization, of maintaining a high rate of capitalist exploitation

420

Correspondence between the Director of the Institute of Race Relations and the Secretary for Native

Affairs, 14 December 1955, AD 843 RJ Records of the South African Institute of Race Relations

papers, Historical Papers, University of the Witwatersrand 421

C.M. Rogerson, Feeding the common people of Johannesburg 422

The Act quoted from S.M.S. Keeble, The expansion of Black Business 423

M. W. Swanson, 'The Rise of Multiracial Durban: Urban History and Race Policy in South Africa,

1830-1930' unpublished Ph.D thesis, Harvard University, 1964. T. R. H. Davenport, 'African

townsmen? South African (Natives) Urban Areas Legislation Through the Years', African Affairs, 68

1969 'The triumph of Colonel Stallard', South African Historical Journal, 1970, The Beginnings of

Urban Segregation in South Africa Grahamstown, 1971. 4 See, for instance, P. Mayer, Townsmen or

Tribesmen Cape Town, 1963, B. A. Pauw, The Second Generation Cape Town, 1963

136

through a system which guarantees a cheap and controlled labour-force.424

It

introduced problems that urban African traders faced, these problems included the

lack of trade facilities, the lack of basic support services, such as water supply,

sanitation and electricity, rents were high and completion for tenancies were fierce.

Successful traders were denied opportunities to countenance their plans for expansion.

425 Above all the granting of trade licenses became the major stumbling block and it

damaged the growth of the legitimate African trading class.426

This raise the following question- does one trace the origins of the laws that governed

African entrepreneurship in the formation of segregated townships to the group areas

policy or to the earlier period of segregation? The answer to these questions needs

further research. However, the control of African entrepreneurship appears to be more

distant but legalized in 1923 when the Urban Areas Act was promulgated. Historical

research has revealed that long before 1923, Africans attempted to forge their own

economic liberation through sharecropping, transport riding and other entrepreneurial

activities.427

In the Highveld, this economic venture was disturbed by the interference

of Boer pressure groups that wanted to safeguard their economic interest against

prosperous sharecroppers. The Boer agitation surfaced against African economic

competition that threatened white supremacy. This was part of Afrikaner nationalism

that culminated in the formation of Afrikaner Bond at the Cape in May 1883.428

At the

same time, the rural Highveld saw an unprecedented state intervention in the

promotion of white farms. The state intervention was facilitated by the crisis in labour

supply, and this agitated concerted action against independent farmers or

sharecroppers.429

These years were also characterized by recurrent moral panics

concerning the position of the poor whites and their impoverishment. This agitation

was against African peasant prosperity and was legally enforced by Orange Free State

424

H. Wolpe ‘Capitalism an cheap labour in South Africa: From Segregation to Apartheid’ Economy

and Society, 1(4):425-456, 1972 425

A. Cobley, Class and Consciousness 426

Ibid 427

T. Keegan, ‘Crisis and Catharsis in the Development of Capitalism, S. Meintjies, Edendale 1850-

1906: A case study of rural transformation and class formation, N. Etherington, ‘African Economic

Experiments in Colonial Natal 1845-1880 428

T.H.R Davenport, The Afrikaner Bond: The History of South African Political Party, 1880-1911,

Cape Town, Oxford University Press, 1966 429

T.Keegan, Rural Transformation

137

Act 23 of 1908, which stamped out all forms of labour tenancy. This Act played a

similar role that was implemented by 1895 anti-squatting law.430

In short, the African occupation of land where he or she could cultivate for

commercial or subsistence gain threatened the political and economic interest of the

white government. For Africans, cultivation of land provided a major area of self-

employment, prosperity and economic independence. This African economic self-

sufficiency was disturbed by the promulgation of the 1913 Land Act. This Act stifled

African self-employment enterprise that relied on land use - it also prohibited African

landownership outside scheduled reserves. As a result, a set of laws were designed to

discourage economic independence of African people. It is largely in this context that

subsequent legislations that controlled African entrepreneurship were designed. When

these laws are examined there is indeed plenty of evidence that indicate a connection

between them and the later laws that govern African entrepreneurship. However, the

scope of this work does not allow us to scrutinize each law and its provision. Reading

from its purpose, the Urban Areas Act of 1923 and its amended Act of 1945 indirectly

reiterated the provisions of the preceding set of laws. In other words, these

entrepreneurial control laws form one of many pieces of legislations enacted over the

years and drawn up to push Africans to join the labour market. This draw our attention

to the more indirect forms that these laws played as legal tools that were used by local

authorities to push aspiring African entrepreneurs to labour market by holding trade

licenses. In addition, they created segregated urban spaces in order to facilitate labour

control and discouraging Africans to be self-employed. In other words, these laws

were the product of South Africa's own peculiar, bizarre brand of racism. It is

interesting to note that white material interests appear to have weighed much more

heavily on the promulgation of these laws. This interest was driven by the direct

interest of the Afrikaners who were confronted by issues of economic, political and

social problems. For the ‘native question, immigration, profiteering, home language

was central.431

The promulgation of the 1923 Urban Areas Act and the subsequent

amended Act did serve, at different times, a variety of material interests. ‘This has

been shown, for instance, that one of the earliest segregationist impulses was directed

430

Ibid 431

D. O’ Meara, Volks-kapitalisme: Class Capital and Ideology in the Development of Afrikaner nationalism 1934-1948, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1983

138

against Indians. This was often couched in the discourse of sanitation and disease, but

the underlying source was more often resentment of Indian commercial

competition.’432

Freehold and business policy

In order to locate Evaton’s entrepreneurship within the broader context of African

entrepreneurship and laws that governed them in South Africa. It is important to

establish the extent in which these laws impacted on local entrepreneurial activities.

As a freehold settlement Evaton was outside of municipal control. The study of

African entrepreneurship in freehold settlements presents a certain distinct about these

areas. In the literature, for instance, Alexandra has been presented as ‘entrepreneurial

community than any other on the Rand whose values and aspiration was stamped by a

strong freehold property in land and private accumulation.’433

The self-governance of

the settlement shaped trade conditions to be favourable for local entrepreneurs who

made the best of circumstances in a world driven by capitalism. Most of Alexandra’s

entrepreneurs were former sharecroppers who liquidated their rural assets and

ventured into urban entrepreneurship.434

On the other hand, Lady Selborne which had

three quarter of Pretoria‘s 200 000 African inhabitants in 1960 ‘had fifty four licensed

businessmen.’435

From these studies, it is clear the self-governance status of freehold

settlements demarcated freehold settlements from the surrounding municipal

locations. In freehold settlements there were no obstacles that prevented Africans from

pursuing trade and commerce. The set of legislation that controlled African enterprise

in urban locations were not applicable to self-regulatory areas. In this context, African

entrepreneurial policy that was designed to stifle African enterprise was destined to

fail in these freehold townships. This explains why some of these townships were

destroyed. It is possible that the relative autonomy that these areas enjoyed, which was

concomitantly attached to land ownership impacted negatively on labour supply. In

other words, these areas served as stumbling block towards tight control of Africans

which took various forms. They offered a relative economic independency which

denigrated the swell of the ranks of working class. Destruction of freehold areas, for

432

P. Maylam, ‘Explaining the Apartheid City: 20 Years of South African Urban Historiography,’

Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol 21, No.1 1995 433

P. Bonner and N. Nieftagodien, Alexandra, p, 31 434

Ibid, p. 5 435

T. Lodge Political Organization in Pretoria’s African Township in B. Bozzoli (ed) Class Community

and Conflict: South African Perspective, Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1987

139

instance, was geared not only towards the creation of segregated areas but also

towards the economic subjugation of freehold residents. In this context, African

entrepreneurial control could be divided into widely different areas, which were

clearly different in terms of administration from one another, there were areas that

were governed by municipal authorities and there were freeholds that administered

independently. As indicated, freehold areas enjoyed a relative freedom of carrying on

any business in any other place than a sites designated for trading or business purpose.

In municipal locations, this was prohibited by local authorities. In addition, some trade

activities like hawking were prohibited in municipal areas but were freely practiced in

freehold settlements. Freehold areas offered opportunities for local business persons to

initiate different entrepreneurial ventures ranging from the field of transport to

retailing. The questions we need to pose about relative autonomy that African

entrepreneurship enjoyed in freehold settlement are when, why and how local

entrepreneurship became controlled by the state. The answer to these questions will

help us to trace shift in local self-governance that provide clue to the changing nature

of local entrepreneurship and how the state gained control in freehold areas. As we

shall see, this trace will be linked to the broader political and economic concerns of

the state that struggled to achieve control over African affairs.

The evolution of trade in Evaton

The pioneer traders were often drawn from the educated residents who wanted to

expand their business enterprises in Evaton. One of the first owners of shop and

butchery was Rev Mokgothu. Mokgothu operated a shop before 1910.436

His shop was

responsible for feeding the developing Wilberforce Institute. We are not sure whether

Mokgothu operated a fixed shop form of retailing or a home operated shop which

would today be called a spaza in a South African township language. We do not know

whether he operated in the building and used the equipment that we visualize

whenever we think of shops. In its early period of development Evaton comprised of

mission educated residents and former sharecroppers. These residents, such as

Motshwari who was instrumental during the construction of Wilberforce Institute in

436

J.Nhlapo Wilberforce Institute, Boitshoko Institute,1949

140

1905 were skilled.437

It is recorded by Dr Nhlapo in his publication that both Mr

Motshwari and Masiza made bricks with which Mr Matsolo put up Wilberforce as a

humble structure which was a school during the week and the house of worship on

Sundays.438

This evidence reveal that personal skills shaped members of this small

community to give their attention to one thing only, as for example weaving of cloth,

the making of shoes, and the shaping of iron and copper. This evidence also discloses

that the construction of Wilberforce as the first community school was a collective

effort that was carried in a form of reciprocity. This was evident with the act of Rev

James Mazibuko who committed himself in acquiring private bag in 1915. He

collected the post bag from Wilberforce Institute to Evaton Station - the bag served

Institution, as well as the Evaton Village at large.439

Perhaps reciprocity was enhanced

by the presence of sharecroppers who valued mutuality. Among these farmers, the

significance of reciprocity was noted by Tim Keegan who documented that, unlike

white debt-strapped white farmers who buckled first during natural disasters, networks

of reciprocity that was based on mutual dependency helped sharecroppers during the

time of natural and economic disaster.440

It appears that the earlier type of exchange was characterized by each individual with

a product to sell waited for someone to come to his or her house to trade. For instance,

the iron smelter who wanted a cloth took his or her product to the butcher and traded

possibly in return of handy-work. This implies that there was significant difference in

terms of nature of home businesses that were based on specialization. Most of these

small scale businesses were in the service sector, with the concentration of

professional services. Daniel Moagi recalled that his grandfather who came to Evaton

in 1908 was a wagon wheel maker and he was active in trading with other residents.

Pointing the dilapidated structure ‘it is where he used to work.’441

Seremi recalled that

some of the elders like his father were ‘jack of all trades.’442

Due to the lack of formal

437

J.Nhlapo Wilberforce Institute, Boitshoko Institute,1949 438

Ibid 439

Ibid 440

T Keegan, Rural Transformation pp. 18-25 441

Interview with Daniel Moagi, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 21 May 2011 442

Interview with Dwight Deremi, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 16 May 2011

141

records which covers this period, it is not easy to give an accurate number of skilled

residents, also informants do not know how many residents specialized in what, but

their living memory informs us that there were substantial number of specialists, such

as Mr Makhene who was a brick-maker, Motuba who was teachers and wagon

makers, Mareletsi a bricklayer, Pooe the baker, Tswagong and Rapodile bricklayers

and makers, Mamasile a scotch roof maker, Mr Marago a wagon maker and a crafter

of wagon wheels, and many others like Sonto’s grandfather a shoemaker.443

There

were also stone masons like Meku’s grandfather, leatherworkers, wood carvers, s,

carpenters, wagon builders, teachers, clergies, iron smelters, herbalist, and so forth.

On the other hand women were adept with domestic related skills like sewing,

cooking, butter and cheese making and other skills.444

For example, Sonto’s

grandmother’s who was known as Gogo Ma-Mokgethi used to collect fetch lard from

local butchers, cook it and sell the fat umhlwehlwe she also used fat make soap, ‘I

don’t know how, but they made soap mixing the fat with caustic-soda, made the soap

for laundry,’445

Mrs Nkutha the wife of Gilman Nkutha was a basket maker and also

made traditional dresses for weddings.446

They also made clay pots local known as

ukhamba and other crafts. Among these skilled residents there was a group of skilled

Oorlams that were officially classified as coloured in government documents. Like

former sharecroppers, and mission educated this group accumulated farming and

artisanal skills from the white farms and missionary schools. Perhaps more revealing

about this group is the archival sources, which document that the early groups of

coloureds were Mr Van Der Merwe, John Malay who looked after Easton, Adams and

Company’s interest. Sophia Maria Adams who bought Plot 3 and 4 on Block 123 in

1905, F. W. Francis who owned Plot 8 and 9 in the Block 139 which was bought in

1910.447

Oorlams were described as ‘generally well clothed, civil, law abiding and

skilled in farming and exceedingly useful to the farmer in dam making and in

fencing’448

These families spent many years in mission stations and in white farms,

and perhaps because of their distinct identity, were susceptible to new ideas, Christian

443

Interview with William Mokoena, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 17 May 2011 444

Interview with Dwight Seremi, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 16 May 2011 445

Interview with Sonto Kekane, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 16 May 2011 446

Interview with Thembi Tshabangu conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 18 May 2011 447

National Archive of South Africa, Notes on Information Gleaned through telephone enquiries,

Evaton Location, NTS 361/364, undated 448

Native Labour, Friend 26 Febraury 1892. See C. Murray, ‘Land of the Barolong : Annexation and

Alienation, unpublished paper

142

influence and the desire to escape from chiefly control.449

It is possible that mission

schools and the close interaction with white farmers provided these residents with

skills. Before 1910, missionary schools taught African students religious doctrine and

basic academics. Africans from mission schools were increasingly advancing beyond

the status of apprentice. At the same time, vocational and technical education was

regarded as suitable for non-whites. In her doctoral thesis Sheila Menjties, illustrates

how one of the travelers James Cameron was impressed by skills of the converts at

Indaleni in 1848 when he observed that ‘they are learning rough carpentry with such

success as to be able to make wheelbarrows not much inferior to those of

tradesmen.’450

This period was marked by consumer and producer coming together in every

transaction. Entrepreneurial activities existed in a less recognisable and essentially

historical form which bore little to modern environment. This does not imply that

earlier forms of local entrepreneurship are irrelevant and less worthy to study, but

there was not that much that was happening with respect to modern entrepreneurial

activities. To a large extent our understanding of this period is hampered by the

limitations and difficult nature of data sources. This period represented the golden era

of some sort or laissez faire. In terms of demographics, the population was low and

commodity exchange was possibly low and the settlement was self-sufficient.

Historical shift in local entrepreneurial structure

The history of local entrepreneurship presents the relationships between industrial

growth that shaped urban social change, consumer mobility and corresponding shifts

in the local entrepreneurial structure. This transition was also characterized by the

change of local character of Evaton from the farming peri-urban settlement into an

urban township. During this period, the Provincial Secretary estimated that Evaton’s

population was between 30 000 to 40 000 persons and this population was likely to

increase as industrial activity and the avenues for employment was increasing.451

The

combinations of these factors seem more likely to have produced a fairly recognizable

new phase of entrepreneurial development in Evaton. The timing of change in local

449

T. Keegan, Rural Transformation 450

S. Menjties, ‘Edendale 1850-1906. 451

National Archive of South Africa, The Report of the Native Commissioner on Evaton, TPB 1305,

1938

143

entrepreneurship can be pushed back at least to the 1930s when fixed shops, transport

enterprise and other new businesses appeared in Evaton. Before 1930s local

commercial activities were primitive in nature and major changes occurred after this

date. Looking at the local economic history from this perspective, the late 1930s could

be perceived as the watershed. The increase of industrialization in the late 1930s and

early 1940s accelerated town-wards movement of many rural African consumers who

sought to occupy places closer to workplaces. It was worse after the Second World

War. There was a large and rapid increase of population into urban areas due partly to

the growing pressure of poverty and the expansion of industrial and commercial sector

which were stimulated by the war.452

The continued urban growth and an expansion

of the capitalist sector of South African economy provided new opportunities for the

local development of retail and transport industry.

In Evaton, this period saw the evolution of the new forms of entrepreneurial

activities, such as transport, ambulances, tailors, coal-yards, hardware’s, barbershops

shops, butcheries, bakeries, brick makers, grave diggers, bricklayers, carpenters,

coffin makers, money lenders, tailors, shoemakers, poultry farmers, butter makers,

photographers, and small craft enterprises. These businesses were generally small, by

and large single proprietorship and only catered for local segregated African market.

As a freehold area, Evaton had a white section but white residents did not use African

shops and services, they had their own stores. This social arrangement reflects on

segregated laws and spatial organisation of South African society. In general, local

African enterprise catered for the needs of Evaton community. Locally, these

businesses did not compete with white entrepreneurs. However, there were few Indian

shops that successfully competed with local Africans and this resulted to tension

between Indian and African traders. The presence of Indians is indicated by

Wilberforce financial records of the mid-1930s. In these records, it is clearly stated

that the school owed Jada and Sujee some money for the hostel groceries.453

From

these records, as well as the presence of the place that is currently called HaJada

Skwereng (Jada’s Square) or which was used for meetings during Evaton Bus Boycott

452

P. Morris, A History of Black Housing in South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa Foundation,

1981 453

Wits Historical Papers, Wilberforce Institute Financial Statement, A B Xuma Papers, AD 843,

1932-1933

144

it is clear that Jada supplied Wilberforce Institute in the 1930s.454

The presence of

Indians entrepreneurs’ unleashed a wave of anti-Indian sentiment among local African

traders who lobbied to the Native Commissioner for the removal of Indian traders in

Evaton. In response, a Native Commissioner investigated this matter and

commissioned police to further his investigation. The police reported, ‘the first

building visited, situated on Block 1, Portion E, Evaton Small Farms, at the corner of

Adams Road and unnamed lane, nearing completion....is owned by Jada and is being

let, I am informed to an Indian Mohamed.’455

In the same letter, the native

commissioner also stated that ‘three stands No’s 1778 and 1780 have recently been

bought by Dadabhay from Natives [but not registered in his name]...a large shop is in

course of construction on one of these stands’456

The commissioner noted that there

were some other Asiatics who occupied rooms in African owned stands, most of

whom had no visible means of livelihood. The list of these Indians was compiled by

Constable Kumalo for the inspector of the Land Tenure Advisory Board in 1955.457

Undoubtedly, these records confirm that there was a considerable infiltration of

Indians in Evaton Native Township. From this evidence, it is clear that there was

discrimination and prejudice that was leveled against Indians. It should be noted that

by this time the government was struggling to keep Evaton racially segregated. This

was not well received by some Africans who had a diverse perception about Indians.

These Africans assisted some Indians to acquire properties in Evaton possibly through

the credulous friendship.

African trade in Evaton could be divided into distinct categories - the established

shop-keepers, transport operators, petty traders, skilled crafters and hawkers.

Collectively these categories formed the local commercial class. This class had

demonstrated the ability to diversify, integrate and specialise in their respective trades.

This was clearly reflected in the local entrepreneurial patterns of the more established

entrepreneurs who constantly embarked on new economic ventures. The development

of multiple entrepreneurial activities in the late 1930s can be closely identified with

the innovatory process. Sergeant Pretorius’s evidence that dates back to 1933 clearly

454

Ibid 455

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from the Native Commissioner to the Chief Native

Commissioner GNLB, 273, 22 November 1955. 456

Ibid 457

Ibid

145

indicates, ‘here are eight butcher shops and each one has his own slaughter place and

nobody see to it. There are also fourteen shops, no shop hours ord. in force, except the

Sunday law.’ 458

Unlike the municipality, most of the shops in Evaton were located in

the residential stands not in a central area, usually laid out in a square shape shops and

were small retail stores selling the same scanty stock of cigarettes, and general

groceries. The central business district and its attractiveness visible in many cities and

shopping malls never existed in Evaton. For this reason, it will be misleading to link

consumer perception and preference to the physical appearance of the shop. Thus

attractiveness of local shops may be associated with personal attribute of traders.

These characteristic may perhaps include friendliness of the shop owner, his or her

sympathy when customer were in crisis. In the context of African communities is

likely that the issue of abuntu was central for attracting customers.

During this period many entrepreneurs became innovative, one of the noticeable

innovations was the development of ambulance industry. After realising that the local

community lack ambulances, Liphoko converted his taxi into an ambulance that

transported sick residents to hospital.459 Population expansion probably played an

important role in triggering innovations. By 1938, the population growth and the

development of new housing on the grazing ground led to the shortage of grazing

space. This forced other residents to hire grazing space in the surrounding European

farms.460

In response William Mokwena’s father saw this as an opportunity to open up

a new enterprise. He went back to Heidelberg farm where he practiced sharecropping

and bought fodder to sell to local stock-keepers. Mokwena recalled, ‘with this

business he made lot of money because people had to feed their horses and cattle’461

To kick start his business Mokwena’s father spent 50 pounds buying his stock, the

transport money which was 12 pounds. In return, he profited 100 pounds which

amounted to more than double of what he spent.462

In Small Farms, he was the only

one who sold fodder, he had no steep competition. This was confirmed by the number

of informants Mjikisi Maseko recalled ‘we had to buy fodder from Mokwena because

458

National Archive of South Africa , A letter from Sergeant Pretorious to the Magistrate of

Vereeniging, Enforcement of Dog Tax at Evaton Township, NTS 361/362, 16 May 1933 459

Interview with Daniel Motuba, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 29 March 2011 460

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from Secretary of Native Affairs to the Provincial

Secretary, NTS 361/364, 12 August 1946 461

Interview with William Mokwena, conducted by Vusi Khumalo Evaton, December 2010 462

Ibid

146

there were no more grazing spaces.’463

We had to limit our livestock because of the

shortage of grazing land and Mokwena’s fodder was expensive, said John Maseko.464

His product was in high demand because of the number of livestock that people had in

Evaton. His profit was enough for him to support his family and pay for housing and

utilities, clothing school fees.465

During the early years of Evaton’s development

Dwight Seremi’s father manufactured coffins free of-charge as the means of

contribution whenever a member of community died, after 1930s he began to sell

coffins. This new forms of economic exchange became problematic; it impacted

negatively on the old social relations that existed in Evaton. It restrained volunteering;

civic engagement and mutual self-help by promoting paid work in the community.

This resulted in the local economic behaviour which degraded the old social quality of

life while introducing social fragmentation and stratification. This type of economy

encouraged the local community to be employed within the formal economy while

pinning down unpaid community labour. It undermined the local capacity to undertake

unpaid work. In addition, it strengthened class distinction between those community

members who had more materials and those who had less.

The expansion of Evaton due to the arrival of newcomers provided market for many

skilled residents - Mr Makhene for instance, manufactured bricks and sold to new

property owners.466

Van Der Merwe, an Oorlam and a stone mason benefitted

economically by selling stones for foundation of many houses. Stones that he designed

were used to build Qupe’s stone-house that still stands today.467

The evidence

provided by Dr J. J Fourie during his inspection shed the light on the increase in

building activity. Dr Fourie, reported ‘building activity has increased in recent years

but the dwelling are mainly of crude rectangular raw.’468

There were other individuals who specialised in baking. One of the most popular

bakers was Mr Pooe who used the underground oven for baking and he later was

463

Interview with Mjikisi Maseko conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 11 May 2011 464

Interview with John Maseko, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 13 June 2010 465

Interview with William Mokwena, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 12 May 2011 466

Interview with Dwight Seremi, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 11 May 2011 467

Interview with David Qupe, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 23 June 2011 468

National Archive of South Africa, Notes on Information Gleaned through telephone enquiries,

Evaton Location, NTS 361/364, undated

147

joined by Mrs Nkabinde who also baked delicious bread, cakes and biscuits.469

There

was also a popular herbalist Abednigo Mkhize who owned Muthi House, a popular

landmark located on the corner of Hamilton and Boundary Road. Currently, Muthi

House has been re-altered for other commercial activity, but among Evaton residents’

the establishment is still known as Muthi house even today. Abednigo acquired

knowledge of herbs from his father who was a well-known inyanga470

in Mkhomazi

District in South Coast.471

At the same time, there was Mr Kgoole who used his oxen

to plough for people and he would be paid in a form of cash for his services.472

Some of the local enterprises that emerged in Evaton surfaced within the framework

of Evaton’s self-governance status. As a freehold settlement that was administered

differently when compared to municipal location, local residents were responsible for

the local social services. There were no municipal establishments that carried out the

digging of graves, construction of toilets, water supply, sanitation and other public

works responsibilities and many other services. Before 1930s, these services including

the building of roads, schools and churches were done communally without any

monetary attachment. When local economy changed some residents took an advantage

of this opportunity and ventured into excavating enterprise. One of the families that

ventured into this enterprise were Solani Nkabinde’s uncles, the Nkabinde brothers

specialized in digging wells for newcomers and graves for the deceased.473

This

entrepreneurial activity became lucrative because some new residents did not have

digging skills, especially those that came from the urban Reef.

This period also saw the emergence of private dealers like R J Phooko who served as a

middleman between the rural producers and urban market product buyers. In an

exemption application, it is stated that Phooko was a partner in the Native General

Agency which was operated by five natives who received stock and farm produce

from natives in the countryside and sell it in the market.474

Phooko’s enterprise also

469

Interview with Solani Nkabinde, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 23 May 2011 470

Inyanga is a man or women who has an extensive knowledge of African herbs that heal different

kinds of diseases 471

Interview with Johannes Buthelezi, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton 21 June 2011 472

Interview with James Nkosi, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 28 May 2013 473

Interview with Solani Nkabinde, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 28 May 2013 474

South African National Archives, A letter from R T Luther to the Secretary for Native Affairs dated,

GNLB 273/ 3, April 1917

148

specialised in writing letters for natives possibly uneducated and those who needed

legal letters. Phooko posed as semi legal expert on matters pertaining to pass laws.475

As far as, this business scheme was described by the Acting Chief Pass Officer, it was

‘an unqualified success financially, therefore letter writing and representation side of

the business is being exploited as much as possible, as it brings a steady income.’476

On the female’s side, Evaton women adopted entrepreneurship as one of the primary

livelihood strategy to meet their household consumer demands. It is difficult to

establish the number of women involved in income generating activities that included

entrepreneurship. Women in Evaton received little official attention for they were

involved in informal ways of generating income. The oral testimonies indicate that

some women were traders. For example, Meku a former student of Oliver Tambo in St

Peters, Rosettenville 477

recalled that while she was the student at St Peters ‘every

weekend we will help ‘me’ Mamakgemu who produced soap.478

Mamakgemu use to

mix animal fats umhlwehlwe with caustic alkali and other concoction to make soap.

However, her soap production enterprise was crippled by competition between local,

marginal soap producers and multinational soap manufactures like Lever Brothers

who purchased local South African firms in 1911. This international soap

manufacturer’s commercial power was derived partly from their aggressive

commitment to new technique of advertising and marketing that was backed by

travelling advertising agents.479

During these years, Lever Brothers convinced

legislators to set guidelines for size, shape and weight of soap. This initiative outlawed

many local soap manufactures including Mamukgemu in Evaton.

Among women entrepreneurs there were dressmakers, weavers, and broom makers. In

those years, women were confined to household duties and agricultural activities,

especially in rural South Africa. They never traded and were entirely depended on

their husband remittance. In the urban areas, those who generated income

475

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from the Acting Chief Pass Officer to the Director of

Native Labour, GNLB 273 160/17/030. undated 476

Ibid 477

It is common in African communities for elderly women to be addressed by youngster as me in

SeSotho or mamu in IsiZulu 478

Interview with Christina Meku, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 27 June 2011 479

T. Burke, Lifebouy Men, Lux Women : Commodification, Consumption and Cleaniliness in Modern

Zimbabwe, London, Leicester University, 1996

149

independently were beer brewers, an enterprise that illegal. In Evaton, women’s trade

was very important and often enjoyed more attention than domestic activities, ‘with

their money women made contribution to education, clothing and some paid lobolo for

their sons, said Mary Maseko.480

As entrepreneurs, local women did not conform to

the missionary model and expectation of women’s roles as subservient wives and

daughters. In their families local female entrepreneurs were not conventional. They

did not reflect representation of Christian domestic ideology produced by

evangelicalism in answer to industrialization. This ideology promoted the notion of

happy homes as habitats where man earn the money and his wife keeps home and

really tries to keep up children.481

In Evaton female entrepreneurs did not lead a

purely domestic life - they were frequently out, some employed domestic workers to

help with houses chores. There was various income generating activities that local

women were engaged with.

Perhaps Evaton represent one of the areas where a great deal of practical equality

between sexes had evolved, particularly in the commercial field. Local women traded

in their own rights which implied that they enjoyed freedom and responsibility as

men. This was confirmed by Dwight Seremi who proudly remarked, ‘our mothers

generated more cash than our fathers.’482

Seremi’s testimony is supported by different

surveys from the end of 1920s onwards. These surveys demonstrate that the economic

shortfall of many African families was partly met by wives earning.483

The financial

contribution of married women was essential to family survival. 484

This was

exemplified by Sonto Kekane’s grandmother and her great grandmother. The elderly

women sold brooms and clothing to the local community, as well as to the

neighbouring farming community. According to Sonto ‘we would walk around Evaton

selling these goods, some we called ‘dress and n' coat.’ During December holidays we

would sell beanies, brooms and straw mats.485

Apart from this enterprise Sonto’s

granny was a money lender, locally known as umashonisa. Her clients were migrants

who were forced by economic circumstances to borrow money for bus and train fare.

480

Interview with Mary Maseko, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 20 May 2012 481

D. Gaitskell, ‘House Wives, Maids or Mothers: Some contradistinctions of Domesticity for Christian

Woman,’ Journal of African History, 24, 1983 482

Interview with Dwight Seremi, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 12 July 2011 483

Johannesburg Joint Council for European quoted in D. Gaitskell, ‘House Wives, Maids or Mothers 484

Ibid 485

Interview with Sonto Kekane, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 13 May 2011

150

It should be noted that in those years, the levels of wages of migrant unskilled labour

were very low, and many workers did not afford to pay rail fares. In 1942, for

instance, the Interdepartmental Committee on Social, Health and Economic Condition

of Urban Natives reported ‘the amount required under existing conditions in

Johannesburg to house, feed, clothe a Native family of five in decency ₤7-14-6, many

Africans workers with families receive less wages than that.’486

Apart from money

lending that was paid with a certain amount of usury interest. She was also the head of

the women’s society's funds and was generally considered to have given financial

support to hawkers and other local female business operators.487

The lack of capital was the key handicap to women entrepreneurs and other residents

who aspired to venture into business. African entrepreneurs had no access to overdraft

facilities they were denied loans by white bankers. Under these conditions African

entrepreneurs faced a hopelessly frustrating barrier to economic prosperity.488 The

women’s financial muscle, as well as the character of self-help scheme did not offer a

strong start-up funding as compared to financial institutions that stronger white

businesses used. These constrain impacted on the size and the scope of African

enterprise which remained small.489

With an attempt to deal with this situation Sonto’s

granny introduced a credit system that catered for local women. By the end of the

1940s, this scheme made it possible for a substantial number of Evaton residents to get

into business. This was confirmed by Meku who remarked, ‘MaVilakazi was central

every woman who wanted cash would borrow from her.’490

Unlike banks, to be

offered credit by the scheme, applicants did not complete forms with personal details.

The scheme was did not operate in a formalised banking fashion. The credit security

depended on the reputation of the borrower for trustworthiness. If the borrower was

someone who participated in different ranges of community activities, such as, helping

during marriage and funeral ceremonies and other social responsibilities she

automatically qualified.491

486

Quoted in the African National Congress Deputation on Increased Railroad, Wits Historical Papers

Xuma Papers, ABX 441002, 1944 487

Interview with Sonto Kekane, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 13 May 2011 488

G. Hart, Some Socio Economic Aspects, R. B. Savage, A Study of Bantu Retail 489

Ibid 490

Interview with Christina Meku, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 27 June 2011 491

Interview with Sonto Kekane, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 13 May 2011

151

Other women entrepreneurs specialized in cheese making. Other female driven

enterprises included itinerant hawking where local women specialised with farm

products like chickens and eggs that were sold every weekend in white suburbs

Johannesburg. In her testimony recounted;

I was still at school and my grandmother would go and fetch chickens from a farm in

the west, that belonged to Mr. Van Vuuren, this would be done on Fridays, We would

then slaughter the chickens and clean them, she didn’t work alone, there were other

ladies working with her; this one lady who has passed on too, her kids sold their place,

her name was Gogo Mngomezulu, and another lady Gogo Mokgeli, she too passed, also

her kids sold the place, I think it is the grand child who was left there. The Fridays were

great, cause it was the one day we would get to eat meat, the chicken heads and feet, the

chickens would then be packed in baskets, there was a man who had the only taxi... he

would come and collect my grandmother and the other ladies, taking them to

Johannesburg.... There was a garage behind the Bantu Mens Social Centre, the taxi

would park there and the ladies would then go on in different directions to sell, my

grandmother sold mostly in Lower Houghton, she had pre-placed orders and would just

deliver them.492

Food trade became the women’s domain - this could be attributed to the traditional

role of mothers as food preparers in their homes. For example, Dwight Seremi’s and

Paul Seshabela’s mother also specialised with eggs and traded in white suburbs of

Johannesburg. Oral testimonies indicate that food trade was as an activity that took

place in the wealthier suburbs of Johannesburg only. It could be argued that this trade

was characterised by the notion of gender and constituted a major source of income in

the eighbourhood. Other category of women entrepreneurs traded in craft, for

instance, Mrs Nkutha who also traded farm products also specialised with crafts that

she sold to white people of Johannesburg.493

Apart from female hawking enterprise,

other women operated culturally related enterprises, such as, beer brewing, but this

remained the domain of the Basotho women. The Basotho women largely sold beer to

Basotho male tenants and migrants who came in large numbers to Evaton over

weekends.494

Similar condition was recorded in Alexandra where undesirable native

492

Interview with Christina Meku, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 27 June 2011

493

Interview with Mafika Nkutha, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 13 April 2009 494

Interview with Tladi Kekane, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 7 July 2010

152

women caused trouble that was confined to weekends.495

The majority of female

stand-owners were devout Christians and they could not brew beer. The local beer

brewing enterprise was not well received by local residents, particularly Christian

stand-owners who regarded it as the source of trouble in the area. The local social

order was at stake, there was alarming increase of crime in the area. This is detectable

in the testimonies of many informants. During interviews Mokwena grumbled ‘the

Basotho introduced bad thing here they use to steal from us they stole my father’s

firewood’496

In a similar vein Mjikisi recalled;

When beer brewing started Evaton residents were frightened by the manner in which

the BaShoeshoe were occupying their stands there was one of the local induna called

Palama and he started ruling. He had many criminal bodyguards who looked after him,

they were dangerous and they ended up killing each other and Ralekeke ended up

killing Palama and he became the chief and Palama died…. When Evaton got spoiled it

was the time when the Russians came to Evaton and the people of Evaton started to

build rooms in their yards.497

Maseko’s testimony hints at beer brewing enterprise and the arrival of the Basotho as

the real source of trouble and social ills in the settlement. He describe this period as

the period when the local social character changed, as the era when Evaton became

dangerous. Like Maseko, Tladi Kekane describes this period as the violent historical

phase that was caused by the presence of the Basotho women and men. In his

testimony Tladi recalled ‘There were many parties that were held over weekends by

Basotho people who turned Small Farms into little Lesotho, and they were also

organised as regional factions.’498

Drinking culture among the Basotho tenants created

tension between landlord and tenants. Apart from beer brewing other forms of illegal

underground economy emerged, particularly from the Basotho migrant men who

traded marijuana. As a result, local residents developed detestation of Basotho rowdy

behavior. This was aggravated by the Basotho interference in Evaton Bus Strike of the

1950s. During the strike the local resident boycotters and the Basotho anti-boycotters

killed and assaulted each other, and many houses were burned down. This turned

495

P. Bonner and N. Nieftagodien, Alexandra 496

497

Interview with Mjikisi Maseko, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 12 April 2009 498

Interview with Tladi Kekane, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 7 July 2010, De Deur

153

Evaton township into the hive of unrest and bitter civil strife.499

Perhaps this one of the

factors that makes many informants to feel embarrassed when narrating about beer

brewing enterprise.

One of the most profitable businesses that emerged during the period was transport

industry. There was an impressive array of informal transportation networks that

emerged in Evaton, this included buses and taxis. The appearance of the local informal

transport arrangement could be located within the residential segregation policies that

forced African people to live far from their places of employment. It is perhaps

accurate rather than misleading to assert that segregation policies that gave birth to

segregated settlements were inextricably linked to the emergence of local transport

enterprise in Evaton. Evaton virtually had no industries or other forms of employment,

the only place where local Africans had to find steady employment was in

Johannesburg and Vereeniging. In his 1938 report, Dr Fourie, a local health inspector

reported, ‘the majority of breadwinners whose family resides in the Township are

employed either on the Reef or Vereeniging.’500

Owing to the distance of Evaton to

Johannesburg and other industrial centres like Vereeniging, local residents had no

choice, but to use some form of transport to get to work on time. During the late

1930s, Vereeniging locality was predominately a farming town with less job

opportunities.501

The locals who were employed in the town were poorly paid, and this

level of payment made the town to be less attractive.502

The city of Johannesburg, on

the other hand, offered attractive and relatively decent salaries, these economic

attributes attracted residents of Evaton in large numbers to Johannesburg. Apart from

labour opportunities perhaps local residents were attracted by mentally stimulating

urban lifestyle and pleasurable eventful life that Johannesburg offered at the time.503

As a result, Johannesburg experienced excessive daily influx of local residents that

commuted to their workplaces, and this led to a serious shortage of public transport.

Local residents like Mkhwanazi, Mbhele and many others took an advantage of this

opportunity.

499

E. Mphahlele, The Evaton Riots, unpublished paper, www.disa.ukzn.

ac.za/webpages/DC/asjan57.11/asjan57. 11pdf 500

National Archive of South Africa, Report of the Inspection at Evaton Native Township, NTS

361/364, 9 September 1938 501

R. Leigh, Vereeniging History, Vereeniging, 1968 502

Interview with Mjikisi Maseko, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 28 May 2013 503

Ibid

154

Before 1930s, transport facility that was largely used in the settlement consisted of

horse-drawn vehicle and cycles for the former and the railway of the latter. After the

World War II, local population exploded and there was a local demand of taxis and

buses.’504

This gap became an opportunity aspiring local entrepreneurs who opened up

new commercial activities of ferrying residents from home to their workplaces.

During this period, railway rates, food and clothing prices were high, and the levels of

African wages were very low, it was estimated to be about £20 per adult male per

annum as an average.505

Besides, trains were very slow, overcrowded and expensive.

This forced some residents who worked in Johannesburg to return home on weekends

only, yet large proportion commuted on daily basis. What intensified the situation was

the Minister of Transport’s announcement, on the 22 September 1944. The minister

announced a 10% surcharge on passengers fare and railage of goods.506

In turn, the

increase of train fares was felt by train passengers of Orlando and Pimville who were

10 to 12 miles from Johannesburg. It was worse for the residents of Evaton who were

28 miles far away from the city. If, for example, weekly ticket was 2/6 from Orlando

to Jeppestown,507

when calculating distance which was remote and far from

Johannesburg meant that Evaton passengers who used the very same railroad but far

from Orlando would possibly pay 50% more than Orlando residents.

At this stage, African workers occupied lower economic status that prompted inability

to pay rail fare with 10% increase. With their low level of wages Africans in the

Union including Evaton residents were not able to cope with increase in rail fare. As a

result, the African National Congress petitioned the Minister of Transport, in the

written petition it was stated’

‘For Africans to increase the 2nd

and 1st class fares 10% with the 15% tax is like cutting

the flesh. But to increase the third class fares 10% is not only cutting the flesh but also

504

Native Commissioner’s Report on Transport, Pretoria, Government Printers, 1943 505

Wits Historical Papers, ANC Deputation on Increased Rail Fares, Xuma Colllection, ABX 441002, 2

October 1944 506

Wits Historical Papers, ANC Deputation on Increased Rail Fares, Xuma Colllection, ABX 441002, 2

October 1944 507

Ibid

155

breaking the bones…We therefore most respectfully request the Honourable the

Minister to exclude the third class fares from the operation of the scheme’508

This nature of socio-economic problem set a tone for the 1950s Bus Boycott. In this

context, what we need to ask ourselves is how local entrepreneurs responded to this

situation. After realizing that train fares were high and there was a serious shortage of

public transport, local residents, such as JJ Mbhele, a former independent farmer and a

transport operator from Natal, James Derbyshire from Kliptown ‘a coloured man who

bought property from James Kunene at the sum of 100 pounds in 1928,’509

as well as,

Mkhwanazi, a former Transvaal sharecropper ventured into transport enterprise. The

opening up of transport business could be interpreted as twofold, one being for

livelihood, as well as, to alleviate the shortage of transport that local residents

experienced. It also gave local business minded residents, such as Jabula Mkhwanazi

to open up new enterprises. Mkhwanazi, for instance founded Vukaphansi Bus

Services. He was a former sharecropper from Piet Retief in Transvaal. On his arrival

in Johannesburg in 1911, he opened up a restaurant and a small hotel in 88 Good

Street in Sophiatown. After assessing prospects of opening up a transport business in

Evaton, Mkhwanazi decided to buy a property in 1938. Mary recalled that ‘my father

was followed his friends Zitha and Ndolela, who were already residing in Evaton.’510

Taking an advantage of distance that resident walked between Evaton Station and

Small Farms. He bought buses and operated a bus company that was called

Vukaphansi Bus Company. Mkhwanazi’s buses transported local people from Small

Farm and Evaton east to Evaton Station.

For Mkhwanazi and JJ Mbhele, Evaton gave them opportunity to revive their old

business activity. Mbhele, for instance revived his old colonial transport

entrepreneurial activity. Before coming to Evaton, Mbhele operated transport on a

wagon which was pulled by fourteen cattle in Natal. His wagon used to park at

Newcastle station between twelve and one midnight, waiting for the train that came

from Johannesburg to Durban. From the train he collected goods from which he

508

Ibid 509

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from McCrobet and De Villiers Attorneys to the Secretary

for Native Affairs, NTS 376 252/56, 16 February 1930

510

Interview with Mary Maseko, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 28 July 2010

156

hauled to local white shops. After delivering goods, he would leave the wagon and

take cattle to his farm where he carried out his farming activities. In the evening, he

would continue with his transport enterprise.511

In Evaton, Mbhele’s taxis transported

people from Evaton to West Street in Johannesburg. According to informants, he was

the first person to open up Evaton/Sebokeng taxi rank which is currently operating in

Westgate Station.512

His taxi business fell when modern cars appeared. According to

Dwight Mbhele’s Hudson did not have windows and passengers would cover their

mouths and noses on board. When younger taxi operators ventured into the industry

they introduced modern cars. Daniel Seremi, for instance bought modern cars with

windows. This impacted negatively on Mbhele’s taxis, many passengers began to

ignore Mbhele’s taxis.513

Mbhele was later joined by M.S Lephoko’s and the

Bakeng’s. In fact, Liphoko was given capital by Mbhele who was his cousin to

venture into taxi industry.514

After realizing that the local community lack ambulances,

Liphoko converted his taxi into an ambulance. Considering that people of Evaton were

deprived hospital services, public health and hygiene which were enjoyed by large

population of whites. As a freehold area, Evaton had no hospital except for Crogman

Clinic, an AME church controlled clinic that was attached to Wilberforce Institute. At

that time the nearest hospital was in Vereeniging, but it catered for whites with a very

small section for Africans. Evaton residents had to use Johannesburg Native Hospital

before Baragwanath opened up in 1947.

It appeared as if most of the entrepreneurs who ventured into local enterprise had the

background in business. This is illustrated by the case of Mary (nee Mkhwanazi)

Maseko, the daughter of Jabula Mkhwanazi, the bus operator. Mary operated a shop

that was located in Boundary Road for more than 25 years. Her commercial activity

originated in her family that became the main source of support towards her small

scale trade activity.’515

After Mkhwanazi left bus business in 1949, he opened up a

shop in his stand, because of his age and the state of health he retired from commercial

activities and gave shop to Mary who started operating it in 1951. When Mary took

over she expanded the business and opened up a restaurant, she also smuggled western

511

Ibid 512

Interview with Dwight Seremi, Daniel Motuba, Paul Seshabela conducted by Vusi Khumalo,

Evaton, 31 July 2010 513

Interview with Dwight Seremi, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 20 July 2009 514

Interview with Daniel Motuba, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 21 May 2010 515

Ibid

157

alcohol. Mary ran her business from the 1950s to the late 1980s. Similar business

background characterized Daniel Motuba’s business who took over a shop from his

parents. During the interview with Motuba recalled, ‘while residing in Orlando,

Daniel Motuba [Daniel share the name with his father] came and established himself

in Evaton.’ 516

Returning to Evaton in 1947, Motuba opened up a shop. For the daily

operation of the shop he relied on his wife who was also a teacher. In the early stage

of business operation Motuba’s wife resigned from her teaching post and administered

the shop.517

Daniel mentioned that the success of his father’s enterprise relied on

unpaid family labour. Perhaps one might ask how Mrs Motuba coped with traditional

roles as a mother and a wife, how did she conducted roles expected of her by her

family. Did family responsibilities motivate or affect her success on business. In his

own words, Daniel remarked ‘My father trusted my mother who was very loyal when

coming to financial management.’ Geographically, Motuba’s and Mkhwanazi’s shops

were well positioned, the Motubas was located next to Wilberforce Institute and it

attracted Wilberforce staff and students. The Mkhwanazi’s was located in Boundary

Road and it attracted residents from Small Farm and the old Evaton. These shops were

characteristically small, neighbourhood oriented. They provided goods that local

community needed. In his own words, Daniel recalled,

We were going in and out of school, I came back. I qualified as a teacher in 1965 and I

went to Johannesburg to teach because there were no posts available in Evaton. I taught

in Johannesburg for twenty five years ... and came back into the same business here in

Evaton. But I have decided to branch it out because we are many, we are six brothers. So

I branched it out and had the business in the general dealing side and I did stock farming

till today, I am a pig farmer now.518

Mary and Daniel entrepreneurial heritage could be traced from their parents. It drew

family resources including family social capital and human capital. For example,

Daniel’s mother was the daughter of JJ Mbhele, a former a farmer and transport

operator in Newcastle, Natal and Mary was born by the former sharecropper. It

appears as if these businesses were representative to the local business trend of

Evaton. This claim is supported by Dlamini butchery, this butchery still function today

516

Interview with Daniel Motuba, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, August 2011 517

ibid 518

Ibid

158

has been operated by different generations, and it was founded by Absolom Dlamini’s

father who passed it to his son who continues to multiplying the fruits of the wealth

generated long ago by a family entrepreneur.

Perhaps the question that we need to ask is what consumers bought from the local

shops other shops, in which period of the year were these shop lucrative and which

time of the year did business slack? Since Evaton was not electrified,519

one of the

commodities that these shops sold very fast was paraffin and candles, although wood

and coal was also used but paraffin was largely used for cooking using primus stove

and for lights. Primus stove was easy and faster for cooking than firewood and coal

and migrants and other local workers did not have time for coal and wood.520

Bank

has asserted that the standard explanation for paraffin preference in the township in

the poor urban communities was its cost effective – ‘it is cheap and readily

available.’521

Among the migrants paraffin was associated with modernity yet

firewood was associated with backwardness or rather past practices of rural areas.522

Similarly, candles were mostly used for light and as a floor polish. At that time, there

was a constant movement of migrant from all over the Reef who visited their

‘homeboys,’ and girls, sisters and other relatives who resided in Evaton.523

This

constant movement benefited local businesses, for instance, weekends were very

profitable and shops made good takings. However, during December and Easter

holiday businesses usually slacked because many migrants returned to their

homelands for holidays. This stretched to after holidays because when they came back

they would be broke with no money to spend. In his testimony Motuba outlined that

‘our shop was well stocked and customers got almost whatever they wanted. We use

to buy in large quantities because we had enough space to store our stock.’524 These

519

At that time electricity was confined largely in white areas, all African township lacked electricity

while white suburbs enjoyed the benefits of electricity. This was not compatible to the country where

coal resources were almost unlimited. Effort was to be made to bring coal in the form of electric light

and power to African townships to brighten homes, for cooking, heating washing and refrigeration 520

Interview with Mary Maseko, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 20 May 2010 521

L. Bank, The Social Life of Paraffin: Gender, Domesticity and the Politics of Value in Southern

African Township (ed) M. McAllister, Culture and the Commonplace: Anthropological Essays in

Honour of David Hammond-Tooke, Wits University Press, 1997 522

Ibid 523

Interview with Tladi Kekane, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, interview 524

Motuba interview

159

shops handled the great bulk of sales of fish, poultry, fruit and vegetables, which, in

other township and cities would mostly be retailed by specialised shops.

Towards local control

Special attention has been given to the growth of local entrepreneurship and the local

economic changes, and the character of consumer-demand that shaped the emergence

of new local enterprises. The issue of self-governance and the business opportunity

that the relative freehold autonomy opened has been captured. As a freehold area,

Evaton offered unregulated opportunities for entrepreneurial activities. This implied

that the township was the land of opportunities that were opened to anyone with

entrepreneurial initiative, or any person willing to work hard and make their fortune

there. When the powers of local authorities was introduced by the amended Urban

Areas in the 1940s, local entrepreneurship activities came under severe scrutiny for

being ‘unwholesome’ and ‘unsanitary.’ This inspection focused on shops, butcheries

and brickmaking.

Before 1940, the Native Commissioner did not record local entrepreneurial activities.

The existing local commercial activities did not draw much attention of the Native

Affairs Department. As the local socio-economic character changed the settlement

experienced a new administration system that impacted local entrepreneurship by

introducing new trade regulations.

As a thinly populated freehold settlement, the local affairs of Evaton were not

supervised by municipalities. By its nature, Evaton was not a location, a ‘native’

village or ‘native’ hostel under the Native Urban Areas Act of 1923. The settlement

was not defined by this Act, set apart or laid out by any local authority, nor was it

under the jurisdiction of any urban location. Before 1936, Evaton was not a scheduled

as a ‘native area,’ and the acquisition of properties by Africans was made lawful by

the Governor General under Section 1 of the Native land Act of 1913.525

The status of

Evaton was not even defined in Section 35 of the Native Administration Act No 38 of

1927. Since the settlement was not set apart or reserved for Africans occupation, it

was open for occupation by white residents.

525

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from S. P Bunting Attorneys Notary and Conveyances

written to the Secretary for Native Affairs, NTS 361/364, 28 September 1931

160

The African side of Evaton was under the control of izibonda who styled themselves

as chiefs or headmen who heard minor cases and imposed fines.526

Izibonda did not

implement regulations that controlled local entrepreneurship and sanitation. By this

time, Dr Clark, the Public Health Inspector, reported that there was no sanitary control

and there was no control of business premises and the handling of food supply.527

The

beginning of local official entrepreneurial control in the settlement may be located

within the broader context of the government’s struggle to gain control over African

lives and their movements. By then, the Native Affairs Department had been at the

forefront of the demand for urban reform, with the power to monitor disease and to

control slums. One of its major objectives was to use provisions of the Public Health

Act to condemn and prevent urban overcrowding and demolish unsanitary buildings

and their powers to prevent overcrowding.528

The urbanisation of Evaton and the

presence of local labour migrants that supplied labour to the surrounding industrial

centres were located within this broader official framework. For example, it focused

on health issues which made it possible for the state to interfere in local affairs. As

indicated below, in Evaton this initiative coincided with a local white public campaign

for strong regulatory powers that would give the Evaton Health Committee greater

control over public health.

For this study, the lobbing role of the Evaton Health Committee, the population

growth and its impact on the change of local social character, provide some

explanation for the development of administration processes that led to the regulation

of local enterprises. These processes incorporated health issues and entrepreneurial

regulations. Broadly speaking, this new development was part of the state social

engineering scheme that aimed at reshaping urban areas by establishing absolute

control over urban African inhabitants. This connection provides an important key to

the manner in which local entrepreneurial policy was implemented in Evaton.

Moreover, the uncontrollable nature of Evaton that was tailored to keep the state

control at bay appeared to have hindered the state objective of keeping townships as

526

The Rand Daily Mail, 20 June 1933 527

National Archive if South Africa The Health conditions report that was presented by Dr Clark to

the Secretary for Native Affairs, , NTS 361/364, 12 May 1939 528

S. Parnel, ‘Creating Racial Privilege: The Origins of South African Public Health and Town

Planning Legislation,’ Journal of South African Studies, Vol. 19, 1993, pp, 417-488

161

labour reserviors. The consistent objective of this control was to restrict the African

presence in urban areas and deny them the right to landownership.529

By this time, the

state was investigating possibilities of establishing local authority that would control

local administrative affairs in Evaton. This was recorded in the report of the Secretary

for Native Affair

In view, however, of the fact that the released area of Evaton…will undoubtedly

become the principal residented (sic) centre and reservoir for Native Labour for the

extensive industrial zone now taking shape in and around the Vereeniging District, the

Department has come to the conclusion that the limited powers available under…Act

No 38 of 1927…steps would have to be taken to have Ordinance No.20 of 1943

suitably amended before such control could be assumed.530

It is possible that the state saw geographical location of the township and its

increasing population which put the settlement under the spotlight as having a strong

potential of supplying labour to the surrounding industries. This seems to suggest that

Evaton urban community like any other African urban community in South Africa

should be tightly controlled.

Control over local entrepreneurship

In the context of Evaton, the question that arises is how did the policy that regulated

African enterprise gain a foothold in Evaton, a settlement that was legally exempt

from the 1923 Native Urban Areas Act. There are two factors that could help us to

answer these questions. The first one is the impact of the local white pressure group

that organised itself under the umbrella of the Evaton Health Committee. The second

one is the sanitary condition that was used by the state as a pretext to gain control over

local entrepreneurship.

As a sprawling freehold settlement and one the largest freehold settlements on the

Reef, Evaton was divided into two sections, for Africans and for whites. In terms of

administration, the white area of the settlement was under the control of the Evaton

Health Committee that was founded in 1935 by local white residents. The

529

S. Parnel, Creating Racial Privilege: The Origins of South African Public Health and Town Planning

Legislation, Journal of South African Studies, Vol 19, 1993, pp, 417-488 530

National Archive of South Africa, Evaton Native Township and Evaton Small Farms: Released Area

No.8 Transvaal, NTS 361/364, 13 June 1946

162

responsibility of this committee was to address public health issues that affected the

white community. Its jurisdiction was limited to white Evaton, but some effort was

made to extend it to the African area, where there was no committee that was

responsible for health issues. In 1939, the Native Commissioner reported that there

was friction between ‘Europeans and Native’ inhabitants of the respective areas.531

Although there might have been other causes of hostility, the Commissioner recorded

that friction centered on grazing facilities. The trespassing of African stock was a

source of much irritation to the members of the Health Committee who did not

possess any grazing commonage and yet continued to believe that their area was being

overrun by African owned livestock.532

The letter that represents this hostility was

written by H. H Baillie, the chairperson of the committee. The letter reads as follows,

the Native is as arrogant and defiant as ever, even more so now that the ‘pound’ has been closed at

Evaton, he continues to invade the Whiteman’s area with impunity knowing full well that neither

the white or the police as he is a Supreme Lord. The young Native has grown up in the atmosphere

created by his fathers, viz trampling upon whites and openly defying them, and are also just as

arrogant as their elders.533

H.H Baillie and his pressure group of residents from white Evaton complained that

African livestock caused the fly nuisance and unhygienic conditions, which compelled

whites to lobby the central government in Pretoria for reforms that would give power

to the local health committee to control African settlement. Their aim was to gain

control over local African affairs and to prevent African cattle from encroaching on

their racially demarcated section.534

However, the interim report of the Secretary of

the Urbanised Areas Committee stated that ‘incorporation of the Native area within

the Health Committee area would not be practicable.’535

The call for a healthy

environment that later gave birth to new regulations and trade licensing originated

from this health campaign. The essence of this advocacy called for the intervention of

the Peri-Urban Health Board, a representative of the central government, to develop

531

National Archive of South Africa, Interim Report No.7 in respect of Evaton, District of Vereeniging,

in the Province of Transvaal, NTS 361/362, undated 532

National Archive of South Africa

Report of the inspection at Evaton Native Township on NTS 361/364 National Archive of South Africa,

9 September 1938, 533

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from H.H Baillie to the Native Commissioner, TALG, 7

/15562, 12 April 1934 534

Ibid 535

Interim Report No. 7 in respect of Evaton, District Vereeniging in the Province of the Transvaal, 11

March 1939, NTS 361/364 national Archive of South Africa

163

sanitary regulations and to deploy health inspectors who would make sure that

residents would adhere to health standards.536

The local white health activists also

protested against what they regarded as ‘offensive trade.’ which included slaughtering

of livestock and brick making enterprises. In a 1937 letter, Baillie stated that ‘natives

slaughter animals in their own yards and expose large number of slaughter house

waste which causes flies and bad smell’537

White health advocates and residents called

for building an inspected public abattoir. A few years after these complaints plans

were made to set up a central abattoir in Vereeniging and implement a system of

control for butcheries.538

As the local population expanded in the 1940s, there was a

considerable growth of an entrepreneurial class and overtrading took place in Evaton.

Many shops and butcheries emerged some were located in a very close proximity.

This resulted to the high competition that included pricing and the manner in which

shopkeepers interacted with their customers. The Native Commissioner’s report

stated that there were approximately 100 Native general dealers and greengrocer

shop.539

At the same time, government urban control was intensifying and it was

gradually shaping up towards the reduction of African freehold status of much African

settlement into municipal controlled townships. In order to achieve this goal, public

health measures were used as an excuse in Evaton, and were under intense official

discussion. This is supported by voluminous correspondences, meetings and

deliberations that were held by the Native Affairs Department. In one of these

meetings Phillips point out that ‘control measures of the peri- urban areas and Evaton

could be established and uniformity of control could be brought into being this would

materially assist in removing the danger to public health.’ 540

Another letter from the

Secretary for Native Affairs stated;

the Department has come to conclusion that the limited powers available under section

thirty of Act No.38 of 1927, as amended are inadequate for the effective local

government of so important area...as at present constituted the Board would be of

course be unable to assume control of the settlement which forms part of released area.

536

Ibid 537

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from Baillie to the Native Commissioner, TALG 7/15571,

17 January 1937, 538

National Archive of South Africa, Peri Urban Health Inspection, NTS 361/364, 3 May 1943 539

National Archive of South Africa, The Native Commissioner Report, NTS 361/364, 12 May 1941 540

National Archive of South Africa, A report of the Native Commissioner reporting to the Honourable

the Minister of Native Affairs, NTS 361/364, 27 May 1947,

164

And steps would have to be taken to have Ordinance No.20 of 1943 suitably amended

before such control 541

The local control measures that were to be implemented reflected on broader aims of

the government which aimed at intensifying control of movement into urban areas.

This initiative represented preliminary phase towards the implementation of local

authority in Evaton. The role of this authority was to control a frequent unregulated

movement of migrants into the settlement Evaton, as well as local trade. However,

there were legal complexities that Native Affairs experienced in implementing local

government regulations confused the efforts of the officials who at some stage

recommended that the health committee was similar to the one that operated in

Alexandra.542

The Secretary for Native Affairs responded to this proposal by noting

that ‘a Health Committee on the lines of proposed will not meet the purpose.’543

The

rejection of the proposal was based on the evidence that the Alexandra Health

Committee, which administered the local affairs of Alexandra, an African freehold

settlement of Johannesburg, was not successful. In Evaton, the Secretary noted that it

was not likely to have suitable African candidates who might be prepared to provide

administrative services.544

Apart from legal technicalities, there was a considerable

anxiety from African residents regarding the imposition of the proposed local

government. The government’s action was seen as an infringement of the rights of

stand holders. As a result, Sam Rom Attorneys was commissioned by the Small Farms

Stand Holders Association to represent them to oppose the implementation of local

authority. In a letter addressed to the Secretary for Native Affairs, Sam Rom wrote

‘my clients now insist on writing to you direct, and to point out that they wish to form

their own Advisory Board at Evaton Small Far.’545

A letter from the Small Farm

Standholders Association to the Secretary for Native Affairs complained that;

541

National Archive of South Africa, A letter to the Provincial Secretary from the Secretary for Native

Affairs, NTS 361/364,18 June 1946 542

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from the Provincial Secretary to the Secretary for Native

Affairs, NTS 361/364, undated 543

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from the Secretary for Native Affairs to the Provincial

Secretary, NTS 361/364, 12 May 2012 544

Ibid 545

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from Sam Rom Attorneys to the Secretary for Native

Affairs, NTS 361/364, 6 December 1945,

165

we are disappointed and alarmed to learn that the Small Farm Township is not supposed

to fall under the local authority mentioned above but under the Peri-Urban Areas Health

Board. We beg to reiterate and emphasise our joint resolution that the Small Farm

Township be placed under the local authority asked for...546

Because of Alexandra, the Native Affairs Department was sceptical about granting

administrative power to a local African resident’s body to take control of the

settlement without the supervisory control of a body like the Peri Urban Areas Board,

which had technical staff and an extensive experience of local government.547

The

Department concluded that ‘a Native body would be financially weak and it is

unlikely that they could provide Medical Officer or Engineer.’548

In his oral testimony

Sam Mokeana explains the situation as follows, ‘the opposition to local authority

emerged from the fact that everything including businesses were going to be

controlled and many people especially stand holders of Evaton did not want to work

for whites, they only wanted to be economically independent.’549

From an

examination of the archival sources it is not clear whether the body of local authority

was implemented or not. However, some form of control was achieved and the Evaton

Health Committee was given power in 1951 to implement regulations that governed

commercial activities and other local affairs. These regulations were implemented the

same year. It appeared that the laws of the Union which governed freehold made it

difficult for a local authority body authority to be implemented. A memo of the Native

Affairs Department stated

Our provisions under Section 30 of the Native Administration Act may not be

adequate to meet the situations of this nature... we will have to devise some proper

scheme of municipal control in Native Areas such as Evaton possible within the

framework of Bantu Authorities Act (although this present difficulties)... the control

of the Peri Urban Health Board appear to be ultra vires and that the Department will

endeavour to devise some other suitable form of urban control.550

546

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from the Standholders of Small Farm to the Secretary for

Native Affairs, NTS 361/364, 12 May 1947 547

National Archive of South Africa, Notes of Discussion with Dr. Maule Clark on Health Conditions

at Evaton Native Township, NTS, 361/364, 17 April 1947 548

Ibid 549

Interview with Sam Mokoena, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 12 February 2013, Evaton 550

National Archive of South Africa, Native Affairs Memo on Question of Local Authority for Evaton

Native Affairs, , NTS 361/364, 11 June 1953

166

This official statement leaves us with an unanswered question which the scope of this

work does not allow us to engage further. However, the availability of trade license

application letters and the entrepreneurial regulations indicate that in the 1940s some

form of control scheme under the Peri-Urban Areas Health Board. This control body

styled itself as a local authority existed in Evaton. This implies that there was a link

between the Board and the local licensing regulation.

Local entrepreneurial regulations

The implementation of the new entrepreneurial regulations in Evaton can be

associated with public safety, health, morals, and welfare and the subjection of

Africans to the many kinds of legal controls that intensified in the 1940s and 1950s.

After the jurisdiction of the Evaton Health Committee was extended to the African

section of Evaton in 1951, a set of rules and entrepreneurial regulations were

implemented. These regulations were deemed to be public health regulations and were

published under Part IV of the Public Health By-Laws and Regulations of the Health

Committee of Evaton, published under the Administrator’s Notice No.148. 551

These

set of laws were approved under the provision of the section 126(1) (a) of the Local

Government Ordinance, 1939, which gave the Evaton Health Committee the power to

supervise the control of businesses, trade and occupation amendments.552

The

implementation of trade regulations in Evaton responded to three different socio-

economic aspects. Firstly, to the white complaints about the nuisance of backyard

slaughtering and brick-making pollution. Secondly, to the friction between African

and Indian traders, which troubled the Native Affairs Department. Thirdly, to what

was reported by the Native Affairs Department officials as overtrading. The issue of

overtrading was reported by the Secretary of the Native Affairs who stated that ‘there

are approximately 100 Native general dealers and greengrocers...and that since the

control was lifted the township has been flooded with Indian hawkers from

Johannesburg and the Reef.’553

Given the freehold conditions and autonomy that

Evaton offered, local entrepreneurs came from diverse social origins and background.

The commercial opportunities that the settlement offered attracted a small number of

551

National Archives of South Africa, Evaton Health Committee, Public Health By-Laws and

Regulations Amendment, TALG 13/155562, 21 February 1951, , 552

Ibid 553

National Archive of South Africa, The Report of the Acting Secretary to the Minister of Native

Affairs, , NTS 361/364, 27 May 1947

167

Indians who came and traded in Evaton in the 1940s and 1950s. However, the Indian

competition was not well received by local African entrepreneurs and it caused

friction. According to the Native Affairs Department report, Indians owned ‘6 shops

within the area.’554

The Afro-Indian friction drew the attention of Native Affairs after

the local African entrepreneurs who grouped themselves under the Evaton Native

Traders lodged a complaint with the Native Affairs Department about Indian

traders.555

After correspondence was exchanged regulatory measures intensified and

series of health inspections were conducted, trade regulations were introduced in

Evaton. They were set up after the local health inspector noted that the introduction of

the health service at the earliest moment was essential. In the Native Affairs agenda,

slaughter poles that were regarded as unsanitary were the first priority in the list of the

Health Board. 556

In the early 1940s, the Sanitary Board struggled for control.

However, the Board’s power was extremely limited by legalities that governed the

freehold settlement of Evaton. In consequence, many local butchers benefitted from

this legal gap and continued to make their own slaughtering arrangements. By then the

Director of Native Agriculture reported that in Evaton,

‘there are 40 licensed Native butchers in the area, including three in the European Health

Committee portion (and many unlicensed butchers) and these have not even a gallow with

a block and tackle, let alone refrigeration and by product facilities. Furthermore, in the

Native Evaton there are no meat inspection at all.’557

.

When the apartheid laws were introduced in the late 1940s, Evaton’s freehold status

was increasingly threatened and the Peri Urban Board’s concern over public health

was felt by local butchers. Soon after the National Party took over control of

government in 1948, plans were made to set up a central abattoir in Vereeniging. The

strategy of the Central Meat Board emanated from a loophole that was evident in local

butcheries. This initiative was accompanied by the tightening of entrepreneurial

control by means of strengthened trade licensing and regulations. Oral evidence

indicates that the local Native Commissioner became strict with slaughtering

activities. Dlamini describes this transformation as follows, ‘local police and the

554

Ibid 555

Ibid 556

National Archive of South Africa, Peri Urban Health Inspectors Report NTS 361/364. 3 May 1943 557

National Archive of South Africa, The Report of the Director of Native Agriculture on Evaton

Native Slaughter Facilities, NTS 361/364, undated

168

commissioner became strict and slaughtering was closely monitored.558

In the late

1940s, the Deputy Director of Native Agriculture indicated that the municipality of

Vereeniging was to build a modern abattoir that would cater for the surrounding

region, say up to a 30 mile radius. In Evaton, this abattoir was to cater for 40 licensed

butchers.559

The chief problem that the butchers experienced was the absence of

transport from the central abattoir. Despite these difficulties, the Deputy Director

reported,

I strongly recommend the latter course i.e. insisting on Native butchers to obtain their

meat suppliers from central abattoir at Vereeniging, The police too would prefer the

course.560

For a few years nothing seems to have come of the Board’s initiative, probably due to

the unwillingness of the Vereeniging local authorities to take responsibility for finding

financing for this large project because it did not then have the power to raise

municipal loans.561

This did not happen until the early 1950s when Vereeniging's

municipal abattoir was opened in Leeuwkuil at a cost of R600.000. After its

establishment more than 91,000 animals were slaughtered annually: 31,000 head of

cattle, 3,500 calves, 33,000 sheep and 24,000 pigs.562

The newly implemented

regulations covered the keeping of animals, offensive trades, fish fryers and

fishmongers, the manufacture of rag flock, storage and sale of foods, ‘native’

tearooms and restaurant, ice cream and similar commodities.563

One of the local meat

regulations required butchers to submit their dead animals to the authorised animal for

examination. This implied that slaughtering was now regulated by the Board and all

butchers were forced to slaughter cattle in the new abattoir. The regulation stated,

Every owner of consignee of any butcher’s meat or dead animal intended for the

food of man within the township, which may be conveyed or transported into the

said area, shall submit the same for the purpose of examination and branding or

558

Interview with Absolom Dlamini conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton, 25 July 2011 559

National Archive of South Africa, The Report of the Deputy Director of Native Affairs entitled ‘the

future’ NTS 361-364, undated 560

Ibid 561

National Archive of South Africa, The Report of the Deputy Director of Native Affairs NTS 361-

364, undated 562

National Archive of South Africa, Evaton Health Regulations, NTS 361/364, undated 563

Ibid

169

stamping by authorised official of the Committee may from time to time direct and

such meat or dead animal shall not be delivered...until the same shall have been thus

examined and branded or stamped’

This regulation exempted residents who slaughtered for family consumption. The

newly implemented regulations were approved and promulgated in the Provincial

Gazette and were subject to Section 5 of the Slaughtering and Meat Regulations

published under Government Notice No. 2118 of 1924. These regulations granted a

local committee power to oversee and administer slaughtering activities.

‘All animals shall be slaughtered in the manner prescribed in the slaughter or

animal Act No 26 of 1935.’...Except in a case of animals which the occupier of

any premises any slaughter for his own household consumption, no person shall

slaughter within the township elsewhere than at the Committee slaughter

pole’...Every owner or consignee of any butcher’s meat or dead animal intended

for the food of men within the township, which may be conveyed or transported

into the said area, shall submit the same for the purpose of examination and

branding or stamping by the authorised official of the committee at such depot ...

Therefore, slaughtering without a committee’s authorisation was prohibited. ‘Any

person convicted of a contravention of this regulation shall be liable ...to a penalty not

exceeding £25 for every animal slaughtered.’564

These laws required local butchers to

slaughter in approved places. There were fees that were attached to slaughtering,

For slaughtering and examination of cattle over six month old each 2s.0.d

For slaughtering and examination of cattle under six months old 1s.0. d

For slaughtering and examination of pigs, each 1s, 0.d

For slaughtering and examination of sheep or goats, each 2s, 0. d565

The charges were payable to the committee in respect of examination and branding.

The new laws had a negative impact on the growth of African butcheries and it is

possible that some private slaughterhouses went out of business. In terms of social

relations, the prohibition of backyard slaughtering had a negative impact on local

564

National Archive of South Africa, Evaton Health Committee: Regulations and By-Law - General,

TALG 7/15562, 1944 565

Ibid

170

social relationships and the expansion of local butcheries. During the time when

butchers slaughtered in their yards, they relied on local unpaid labour based on

reciprocal relationships and neighbourhood networks. There were no licenses that

were required; yet new regulations required anyone slaughtering animals or birds to

hold a provisional or registered license. Describing the change that was brought by

licensing, Thomas Mofokeng recalled,

They will ask young boys from the neighbourhood to come and assist during

butchering, they won’t be paid cash, but they will be given some meat especially offals

to give to their parents. This was frequently done and boys knew that whenever they are

called they will be given food’566

The control of slaughtering affected this kind of relationship; local boys and men who

used to help during slaughtering would be offered offal and other parts of slaughtered

animals for free, but after the introduction of new regulations, they had to buy what

they used to get for free. In his testimony Dlamini recalled,

‘although people were selling meat but some part of slaughtered cattle will be given to

families who could not afford to buy, there were widows and elders who would be

given something from the slaughtered cattle, also boys who were helping would

receive some payment in the form of meat to go and cook in their homes. By the time

when slaughtering became regulated, butchers sold everything because they had to

cover up for slaughtering and inspection costs that the Commissioner demanded.567

Butchers, such as Ben Moeketsi stopped practising because of the rising costs

associated with butcher operations. The rising costs and the tedious process of

applying for licenses restrained this commercial activity and led to a decrease in the

number of butcheries. The new regulations encouraged butchers who avoided the laws

to break them and it was very hard for the police to monitor the situation. The Evaton

Police Station was understaffed and police dealt with different matters ranging from

collecting taxes to monitoring criminal activities. This was evident in a letter that

Sergeant F.H Berhaman wrote complaining to the Director of the Native Labour,

566

Interview with Thomas Mofokeng, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 20 July 2012, Evaton 567

Interview with Absolom Dlamini, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, Evaton 12 May 2011

171

‘from time to time I am requested to undertake duties in connection with stands...I regret

again I have to be relieved of the duty of valuation of stands...for several reasons. Firstly

the only means of transport is the government car which is used by myself and the clerk

who collect native tax. I use the car sparingly so as not to hinder the tax collection...much

of my time is spent attending to members of the public’568

The first problem with the regulations was the question of enforcement; butcher shops

were only inspected every two years. Even if a butcher shop was caught trading non-

exempt items, the fines were not large enough (£25) to deter owners from

recommitting the offence. This loophole encouraged some local entrepreneurs to

operate illegally and the police department arrested Jacob Mafobokoane and possibly

others. The surviving sources indicate that Mafobokoane was refused a trade licence

because he was convicted of failing to maintain registration for slaughtering stock and

trading without a licence.569

He was also involved in a stock theft syndicate and was

suspected to be one of the receivers of stolen stock in Evaton.570

The persistent commercial transformation of butcheries impacted on the organisational

structure of the local meat industry. Apart from the meat regulating industry there was

another set of structural factors that contributed to this change. Firstly, the expansion

of the settlement reduced grazing land and residents could not keep up large number

of cattle herds. Secondly, when entrepreneurial regulatory measures were introduced

in 1951, the stock reduction regulation was introduced. These regulations impacted on

the number of cattle that could be kept in each stand,

‘every occupier of the erf or portion should or an erf in the town shall be entitled to keep

two cattle or two horses or two mules or two donkeys or not more than five sheep or

goats…the committee shall have the right to grant… to grant licenses.. . to persons

wishing to keep more animals’571

The regulation was in line with the national stock limitation legislation of the 1950s.

At the same time these regulations also prohibited local residents from keeping cows

568

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from Sergeant F.H Brehrmann, to the Director of Native

Labour, , NTS 361/362, 12 September 1943 569

Ibid 570

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from the Assistant Native Commissioner to the Native

Commissioner NTS 1247 1385/162, 9 October 1951 571

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from H.H Baillie to the Native Commissioner NTS 1247

1385/162, 27 May 1929

172

for dairy purposes.572

This promulgation presented a drastic alteration in the dietary

habits of residents; it also contributed to poverty since local residents depended on

their livestock, particularly their cattle, for their basic protein intake in the form of

milk, sour milk and, less frequently, meat. It is clear that the economic transformation

introduced by the state restrained local economic independence and the old

organisational structure of the meat industry. This shift also impacted negatively on

by-products such as hide-related entrepreneurial activities. In Evaton there were

shoemakers such as Mokgethi who manufactured shoes, belts and other leather

products. Edward Nxumalo recalled,

‘ntate Mokgethi processed cow hide into shoe leather and he made shoes, he relied on

skin from local butchers who gave him hide in exchange for shoes that he produced,

when new laws came all this changed Mokgethi found it difficult to collect hide.’573

The production of shoes was one of the specialities practised by a few artisans such as

Mokgethi and they relied on butchers for hides. Dlamini recalled ‘if I remember well

Ntate Mokgethi used to come here to collect hides and at times he would drop shoes

for my father. I don’t know what happened to him and his business during the time of

regulations.’574

The impact of regulations on animal keeping and the decrease of grazing land led to a

lack of a local meat supply. Before the 1950s local butchers bought livestock locally.

But the reduction of stock and grazing land forced them to purchase livestock from

other settlements or neighbouring farms. As a result, Evaton was unable to supply and

meet the demands of its own people. Dlamini recalls, ‘the settlement had to rely on

meat that came from other areas.’575

Before the implementation of local regulations

and licensing laws, a butchery was one of the easiest entrepreneurial activities to

operate. The reason was that livestock were available in the area and butchers could

slaughter without any supervision. Dlamini, who still operates butchery, recollects, ‘in

what may be called the good old days, cattle were slaughtered in our yards and

572

Ibid 573

National Archive of South Africa, Evaton Health Committee, Regulation for the Supervision,

Regulation and control of Businesses, Trade and Occupation Amendments. TALG 13/155552, 1944 574

Interview with Absolom Dlamini, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 2 July 2011, Evaton 575

Ibid

173

nobody would question you.’576

In those years, local ‘butchers were not willing to part

with their livestock especially cattle which was still regarded as the economic

backbone of the household.’ Local butchers clung to the belief that investment in

cattle created considerable potential for socio-economic differentiation.

The introduction of new regulations came with the new technology of cold storage.

The local butchers who wanted to continue operating had to adapt to totally new

technologies that required every butchery shop to have modern refrigeration devices.

Owing to the high cost of these facilities, it was not easy for them to maintain cold

storage. Moreover, Evaton had no electricity that would allow storage devices to run.

The butcher shops had to comply with inspection requirements which demanded

expensive modern facilities and a building that met standards. 577

Besides,

slaughtering fees were high and it was not easy for local butchers to buy the necessary

equipment, materials and other physical resources including the building of a

standardised butcher shop which was costly. As a result, these regulatory measures

restrained many local butchers who failed to comply with the requirements of

butchery regulations. Butchers closed down their operations, and some operated

illegally. Fees that were paid in the regulated slaughters depended on weight. Since

animals are shaped differently, one may have more muscle or fat or bone than the

next. Meat could be close trimmed or left with some fat on, so cutting differences

determined quality and price. Some animals had less bone weight than others. This

made a difference in the fees that butchers had to pay to the slaughter centre.

The difficulty of operating butcher shops was further aggravated by trade licence

applications. Dlamini recalls, many butcheries were home-based. ‘Before applying

many applicants ensured their premises met the required standard which most of the

applicants like my father did.’578

Besides butchers, there were entrepreneurs who

specialised in dairy products.579

One of the well-known local dairy producers was

Elias Mthimkhulu. According to his son Bheki, ‘we were producing cheese and other

dairy products like sour milk that was locally known as amasi, we had lot of amasi

576

Ibid 577

Ibid 578

Interview with Absolom Dlamini, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 3 July 2011 579

Ibid

174

because we never had fridges and our milk got easily spoiled.’580

New regulations that

regulated dairy shops were implemented at the same time as those of the butcheries.

The dairy by-law compelled dairy dealers to have proper storage with effective lights

and ventilation and a drainage system.581

The dairy shops had to be kept clean, and the

storage room where milk was kept required the ceiling or inner surface of the roof and

inner surface of every wall to be covered with material such as lime washing which

had to be white washed twice a year.582

The regulation required that all vessels had to

be kept clean and all milk shops containing milk intended for sale were to be cleaned

daily.583

Cows that were milked were to be cleaned. It was illegal to keep milk

intended for public sale in any room such as a living room, bedroom or any room in a

house other than a proper storage room.584

After the implementation of regulations,

the cost of running a milk business became expensive. For instance, the cost of

building storage as required by the regulations was expensive; floors had to be

constructed with impervious material in order to create a channel for effectively

carrying away all urine or other liquid filth to an outside concrete catch pit. Because of

the expense, many milk dealers were relatively poor and operated on a small scale. As

a result, more and more milk producers left the enterprise and the local milk industry

declined. The economic status of milkmen and women was clearly described by the

Special Justice for Peace in a trade license application letter. He wrote, ‘the

applicant...use a pedal cycle, pay for the milk he buys from Mr Cooper and then sell it

by retail to residents of the location. He cannot invest a definite amount of capital in

his business, as his purchase of the following day will depend on his sale.’585

One of the major reasons for the decline of local milk entrepreneurs in Evaton was a

result of the establishment of large-scale dairy firms and the introduction of the

pasteurisation technique of milk. By then the Evaton community had become a milk

consuming community. According to Tsepo Khanyi, ‘milk was regarded as food and a

drink, milk was used for porridge in the morning, it was not only fresh milk, likewise

580

Iinterview with Bheki Mthimkhulu, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 12 May 2012, Sebokeng 581

National Archive of South Africa, Evaton Health Committee, Regulation for the Supervision,

Regulation and control of Businesses, Trade and Occupation Amendments. TALG 13/155552, 1944 582

Ibid 583

ibid 584

Ibid 585

National Archive of South Africa A letter of trade license application by Jim Joubert, 29 March

1946, NTS 1244, 1323/162, undated

175

sour milk was of importance for local residents. It was to a large extent used as a

supplement to cooked food in every house hold.’586

Selling milk at the doorstep in

Evaton, especially in the 1940s when the practise of cattle keeping declined due to the

lack of grazing land, was common. Local milk dealers were unaware of the concept of

professional milk hygiene.They conducted their business in an informal way. Khanyi

paints a picture on how these dealers sold their milk, ‘local milkman were cleanly

dressed with white clothes and their vessels were clean, since milk was perishable,

they also sold amasi and cream which was the by-product.587

A justification for the

elimination of local milk producers was the anxiety about public health and safety.

Although the new regulations were in place, a number of local milk entrepreneurs

continued to operate, though on a small scale. These dealers undermined the new

regulations which stated that ‘any person licensed to carry on the trade of dairyman

cow keeper, or purveyor of milk shall inform the committee without delay.’588

Instead

they continued delivering milk informally in the neighbourhoods.

The change that took place in Evaton was fundamental. The area changed from

having frugal rural subsistence producers that were threatened by bad harvests to

modern urban consumers. The variety of foodstuffs that were supplied to an urban

population came from different local suppliers. With the local population growth,

eating houses, similar to Mary Maseko mushroomed. These houses matched with the

rising demands generated by the high population. They proved to be advantageous and

they met the food demand for a burgeoning local workforce. Their growth was

associated with conflict surrounding the establishment of similar enterprises in white

areas, where were regarded as noxious facilities by white urban authorities.589

As

compared to Evaton, eating houses in white areas were expensive, and white owners

‘overcharged’ or exploited their African patrons. 590

As they formed part of retail enterprise, eating houses had to comply with regulations

that governed local commercial activities. According to records of the Native

586

Interview with Thabang Khanyi, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 12 May 2010, Evaton 587

Ibid 588

National Archive of South Africa, Evaton Health Committee, Regulation for the Supervision,

Regulation and control of Businesses, Trade and Occupation Amendments. TALG 13/155552, 1944 589

C Rogerson, Feeding the common people of Johannesburg, Journal of Historical Geography Vol 12,

issue 1, pp 56-73 590

Ibid, p,58

176

Commissioner there were more 10 eating houses in Evaton.591

The local by-laws

defined them as follows, ‘The term eating house shall mean any premises or place

where any article of food or drink is sold or offered for sale to native’592

The

regulations stipulated that all rooms where people ate had to receive enough light and

ventilation to satisfy the inspection of the committee.593

The floors where rooms

where food and drink was consumed had to be properly cemented with concrete and

cement that prevented moisture seeping in. Sufficient privies with urinals were to be

provided by each eating house. The water supply had to be adequate for washing

hands.594

All the walls had to be white washed and be washed or redone every year. 595

If these conditions were not complied with, the authorities would serve a notice and

the owner of the eating house would be subject to prosecution.

Like any other settlement, Evaton had adequate food supplying outlets that fed local

residents. The bakery was one of the establishments where local residents could buy a

diverse range of breads, mouth-watering pastries and cakes. In Evaton regulatory

measures that aimed at the safety and quality of bread were promulgated along with

other regulations. The clause of the local bakery law clearly stated that, ‘no person

shall carry on the trade of bakers, pastry-cook confectioner or ice-cream maker unless

the committee is satisfied, [and] that proper provision is made in his premises for the

due observance of these conditions.’596

Like the eating houses, bakery rooms were

required to be ventilated and that there should be a proper supply of water. In the case

of water supplied by shallow wells, a proper arrangement for boiling water was to be

made before baking took place. Flooring had to be cemented. A similar regulation

controlled different types of entrepreneurial activities ranging from tea rooms to

restaurants. In part VIII of the regulations it clearly stated, ‘ the medical office of

health or sanitary inspector may at all reasonable times enter and inspect any premises

licensed as a tearoom, hotel, boarding houses, eating houses or restaurant.’597

All

591

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from the Native Commissioner to Peri Urban Health

Board, NTS 361/364, 23 May 1945 592

National Archive of South Africa, Evaton Health Committee, Regulation for the Supervision,

Regulation and control of Business: Trade and Occupation amendments, TALG 13/155552, 1944 593

Ibid 594

National Archive of South Africa, Evaton Health Committee, Regulation for the Supervision,

Regulation and control of Business: Trade and Occupation amendments, TALG 13/155552, 1944 595

Ibid 596

Ibid 597

Ibid

177

these retail enterprises were regulated; it is not clear about service-related enterprises

except for brick-making.

Brick-making was one of the most popular and lucrative enterprises especially during

the building boom of the late 1930s and 1940s. With the introduction of regulations

and the establishment of the neighbouring Vereeniging Brick and Tile, this industry

declined in Evaton. Another contribution to the collapse of this enterprise was the

promulgation of new regulations which stated that,

‘No person shall manufacture bricks or any other articles of clay on any brickfield or

upon any other ground under the control of the committee, nor shall any person obtain

or take clay or other material for any such purpose aforesaid from any such brickfield or

other ground without being in possession of a licence for the purpose duly issues by the

committee’ 598

Before digging material, a licensee had to go through the committee for sanitary

arrangements that would satisfy the medical officer or the health inspector. If a brick

maker did not comply, he would be acting illegally.

The brick-making regulations impinged directly not only upon local brick makers’

pride in his craft but also upon his independence, and it imposed control over brick-

makers’ work. The implementation of regulations coincided with the mechanisation of

the brick-making process. This changed the local brick-makers’ attitude towards the

industry which was becoming difficult to operate. They were being pressured both by

harsh white competition and technological innovations. Many of them looked askance

at changes that threatened the security of a static and traditional arrangement of work,

prices and profits. This was noted by Christina Meku who indicated that, after the

opening up of Vereeniging Brick and Tile, her father, Mr Makhene, and other brick

makers got frustrated by rules and regulations, as well as the restrictions that hindered

them from continuing with their brick-making enterprises. The Vereeniging Brick and

Tile had big machines which could make many bricks in a short period of time as

compared to local brick makers.’599

The changing nature of the building industry as a

598

National Archive of South Africa, Evaton Health Committee, Executive Committee, 27 August

1954, TALG 13/155552 599

Interview with Christina Meku, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 20July 2011, Evaton

178

whole highlighted these countervailing tensions. Thus many brick makers surrendered

to the demands of new regulations and advanced technology and were irresistibly

drawn into the labour market. They abandoned their old independent economic

practices and adopted new livelihoods. There was an obvious connection between the

introduction of machinery, the implementation of new regulations and the growth of

brick-making industries in the Vereeniging region. .

The fundamental characteristic of ownership in the industry was its small-scale and

risky nature. Hence, after the implementation new regulations, many brick making

enterprises suffered under the committee’s control. It seems likely that the repeal of

the excise tax in the 1940s and the building boom encouraged the formation of larger

white-owned firms like Vereeniging Brick and Tile. The emergence of these firms

replaced a small number of small local long-established brick-makers who had worked

within the well-defined labour context of Evaton.

Regulations and fees

The Peri-Urban Health Board set fees that were charged for each and every

entrepreneurial activity.

Baker

Boarding House where

Accommodation is provided

For more than ten persons

Butcher and or fishmonger

Green Grocer and fruiters

Fresh producers

Miller

Restaurant

£2.00

£2.00

£5.0.0

£1.10.0

£2.00

£1.0.0

£2.0.0

£2.0.0

179

Hotel

Refreshment room or tea room (including

fruit greengrocers and ice cream

Grocer

Hawkers and pedlars, other than hawker

Peddler selling vegetable

Barber and hair saloon

Dairy

Bioscope

Fishfrier

Cobbler

Dog Kennel

£7.10.0

£2.0.0

£5 .0 .0

£1.10.0

£1.0.0

1.10.0

£ .10 0

£2.0.0

£1.0.0

£1.0. 0.0

180

Local Licensing

Licensing can be defined as the granting by some competent authority of a right or

permission to carry on a business or do an act that otherwise would be illegal.600

‘License may be interpreted as a nature of authority to a person to exercise an inherent

right which has in public interest, been restricted or made subject to certain conditions,

requirements and qualification.’601

Licensing may at one extreme be in the nature of a special privilege and at other

extreme a right which can be exercised simply by payment of prescribed fees. 602

In

Evaton, licensing was used from the early 1940s to regulate and control local

economic activities ranging from brick-making to butcheries. The goals of local

licensing, including prohibition, regulation, administration, and revenue, were mixed

and sometimes confused. The overall justification for licensing was to promote the

public interest by ensuring healthy and safe delivery and generally the public good and

the general welfare. Trade licensing in South Africa was based on numerous statutes,

ordinances and by-laws. The local licensing laws in Evaton were based on the Evaton

Health Committee regulations and the national laws that governed businesses. In this

settlement, licensing involved two separate components. Firstly, it determined the

granting of permission to local entrepreneurs to operate commercial activities.

Secondly, it determined permission that stipulated the circumstances under which

permission could be granted for the issue of license. Permission was then the gist of

licensing and the Licensing Board was responsible for carrying out licensing

responsibility. Its Board enjoyed the power to granted or deny, renewed or refused to

be renewed, withdrawn through suspension or withdrawn temporarily through

suspension or withdrawn altogether.603

It was not as little as routine public registration but licensing provided a means of

requiring the payment of a tax, and a means of conditioning certain private activities

600

Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Trade Licensing and Allied Problem, Government

Publisher, Union of South Africa U G 2, 1961 601

Ibid, p. 2 602

Ibid 603

Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Trade Licensing and Allied Problem, Government

Publisher, Union of South Africa U G 2, 1961

181

in the public interest. It also demanded the requirement of entry into entrepreneurship.

In the context of Evaton, licensing prevented local commercial activities, such as

illegal trade from developing into a nuisance. The official justification of local

licensing was that it prohibited nuisance activities for the benefit of local

communities.604

This was the case with local slaughter houses which were deemed to

be health hazards. It was the same with brick-making and the air pollution that the

industry caused. In Evaton, licensing was associated with inspection which was an

effective device employed by the local Health Committee to ensure that psychical

facilities provided by the licensee were up to standard and that certain consumer goods

were delivered properly to the consumers. For example, licensing ensured that

communities were served honestly, fairly and satisfactory.

It is therefore important for this section to interrogate the procedures and the legal

requirements for the issuing of licenses in Evaton. The issuing of licenses in Evaton

was governed by the Rural Licensing Board. There were a number of government

departments that were involved in the process. The application for a license was

officially circulated within the Police Department which was under the authority of

Special Justice of the Peace, the Department of Labour and the office of the Native

Commissioner. Each office had to assess the application and give its recommendation

report to the Licensing Board. The police had to assess the social background and

criminal records of the applicant and submit a recommendation to Chief Native

Commissioner and the approval of the Minister would then be sought. In the case of

renewals the Chief Native Commissioner delegated the authority to approve.605

The

issuing of trade licenses in Small Farms which was by then new was in the hands of

the Licensing Board without the intervention of the Department.606

In the case of Jim Joubert’s application for license, the local police vouched for his

good character and could say nothing detrimental about him.607

From the records, it

appears that the Department of Native Labour evaluated work and business experience

and educational background. For the application to be assessed and approved, 604

Ibid 605

National Archive of South Africa, Report of the Native Affairs Commissioner on Evatton Township,

, NTS 361/364, 27 May 1947 606

Ibid 607

National Archive of South Africa, A letter of trade license application for Jim Joubert, NTS 1244

1330/162,

182

educational, criminal, work experience and financial status was evaluated by these

departments. The Native Affairs Department also assessed the geographical location

of the proposed business and its proximity to a similar commercial establishment in

the vicinity. If an applicant was illiterate, that is, he or she could not read and write,

the application was turned down. Responding to Jim Joubert’s application, the Special

Justice for Peace wrote, ‘Applicant has had no schooling, cannot read and write and

the only official language he speaks is Afrikaans. He will not be able to comply with

Section 134 Act 24 1936 and has no intention of keeping books’608

The issue of

geographical proximity was noted in Josiah Moagi’s application letter where the

Additional Native Commissioner, I.P O’Driscoll, pointed out, ‘In view of the fact that

the applicant has no educational or any experience of business, and there is a butchery

nearby, I am unable to recommend the application.’609

Moagi’s proposed butchery was

to be located ¾’s of a mile away from Mabasa’s butchery.610

The issue of capital also

inhibited entry to the entrepreneurial world during the application process.

Responding to John Ntsene’s application, O’Driscoll wrote, ‘The applicant’s meagre

capital, it is doubtful whether either venture could be successfully conducted.’611

It was the same with John Mtsweni who was refused a license because of the location

of his proposed butchery. The Secretary of Native Affairs wrote to Mtsweni, ‘I have

the honour to inform you that this application was refused as it was considered that

there are sufficient...butchers in the Evaton Township.’612

Unlike other applicants who

never challenged the decision of the Licensing Board, Mtsweni challenged the refusal

which he regarded as unfair. Before he applied for a license, Mtsweni carefully

explored different business activities and potential locations as well as categories

within which his business fell. In order for him to obtain a licence, he also followed

the required procedure during his application. He was aware what was required and

what his trading space should look like. ‘Before applying many applicants ensured

their premises met the required standard which most of the applicants like my father

608

Ibid 609

National Archive of South Africa, A letter written by the Additional Native Commissioner in

response to the trade license application of Josiah Moagi, NTS 1312/162, 12 April 1946 610

Ibid 611

National Archive of South Africa, A letter written by the Additional Native Commissioners for the

General Dealer application of John Ntsene NTS 361/364, 25 August 1946 612

National Archives of South Africa, Application for Butchery for John Mtsweni, NTS 1244,

1309/162, 6 September 1946,

183

did.’613

Because he met all these requirements before applying, Mtsweni felt that the

decision of the Secretary of Native Affairs was unfair; he then challenged it with the

help of legal experts who petitioned the Secretary. B Pencharz, his attorney, wrote

With regard to the first paragraph of your letter under reply, we would point out that

in 1942, the writer interviewed the late Col Denys Reitz who was then the Minister

of Native Affairs in regards to the very point raised by you, and as a result of such

interview, the writer was informed that in future your Department would regard each

case on its merits and would not take up the attitude that there were already

sufficient licenses.

With regard to the second paragraph of your letter under reply, we are informed by

the applicant that he will have a commencing capital of £150.0.0 which we think

should be sufficient for his purpose, and that he will obtain the service of a

bookkeeper at the minimum sum of £1 .0.0’614

The Secretary of Native Affairs responded

In reply to your letter... I have a the honour to inform you that in view of the content

paragraph thereof, the Department is prepared to reconsider the application...it will

be necessary for the view of the Rural Licensing Board to be obtained, and I shall be

glad if you will request Mtsweni to make a formal application to the Board and

advise me of the result thereof

The outcome of the attorney’s petition helped Mtsweni receive a license which the

Minister approved. The provision of the Proclamation No 104 of 1933 (amended in

1952) provided that no business should be established within two miles of the similar

trading site already occupied. This rule was successfully challenged by Mtsweni who

won the case. The issue of licensing procedure was also challenged by a group of local

entrepreneurs that belonged to the Evaton Native Traders Association, which laid a

complaint before the Native Affairs Department about the delay in granting trading

licenses.615

In response to this grievance, the Department acknowledged that the

procedure for dealing with licences was cumbersome and varied according to the

613

Interview with Absolom Dlamini, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 20 July 2011, Evaton 614

National Archive of South Africa, Application for Butchery for John Mtsweni, NTS 1244 1309/162,

27 November 1946 615

National Archive of South Africa, Report of the Native Affairs Commissioner on Evatton Township,

, NTS 361/364, 27 May 1947

184

situation of the trading site.616

Attempting to solve this problem, the Department felt

that the application procedure was complicated and needed to be simplified. The

Native Commissioner recommended that, ‘In order to simplify the procedure in the

Released Area, we recommend that the Chief Native Commissioner be given delegate

authority to approve of the new licenses in the Released Area, as well as renewals, in

terms of Section 24 of the Native Trust and Land Act, 1936.’617

It is clear from the surviving sources that most trade license applicants were not

educated. For economic reasons, most of these applicants did not have a formal

education that satisfied the screening process of the Rural Licensing Board – the

economic status of their parents did not enable them to access formal education which

was expensive at the time. Along with other requirements, education became one of

the critical resources for acquiring trade licenses. Their desire to venture into

entrepreneurship was motivated by a number of reasons that were beyond their

control. One of these motives was low wages which has already been presented. This

implies that they were motivated by financial rewards, such as increasing income at

the time when income inequality was rising in the South African labour market. Apart

from that, they wanted to create jobs for themselves in order to be independent and

enjoy self-actualisation.

It is then important to interrogate the effect to which entrepreneurial restructuring had

on individuals and how it stimulated illegal dealings. From the local entrepreneurs’

point of view, the laws that governed local enterprises, especially business registration

and taxation systems, were overly complex and difficult to understand. Mokwena

recalled,

‘we could not understand what the government wanted and it was not easy to get

licenses, we would have enough money for opening up business, then they would

require education, you will have education then they would say no you don’t have

experience it was really frustrating.’618

616

Ibid 617

Ibid 618

Interview with William Mokwena, conducted by Vusi Khumalo, 12 July 2012, Evaton

185

Local entrepreneurs were often subjected to lengthy and costly delays in clearances

and the approval process. A survey of license application sources demonstrates that

lack of capital was the greatest problem facing aspiring entrepreneurs. In the case of

Katy and Richard Ntshika’s application, I P O’Driscoll, the Additional Native

Commissioner, responded to their application as follows, ‘... neither of the applicants

have any experience, and they have only £11 capital, and in view of the Special

Justice of the Peace’s Evaton remarks, I do not recommend the application.’619

The

requirement of experience meant that the founders should have worked in the industry

or operated the business before. Certainly experience had a huge positive effect when

entrepreneurs had it, but it was unreasonable for the Board not to give a chance to

those who had the desire to take entrepreneurial risks to prove themselves. Perhaps

experience was used as a justification to discourage those who desired to venture into

entrepreneurship.

It is therefore clear that local entrepreneurship was marked by different strategies that

aimed at hindering or rather discouraging aspirant entrepreneurs from entering into

entrepreneurship as in the case of J Leburu who before applying for a butcher’s

license in 1946 worked as an agent for African Life insurance Company in

Johannesburg and a block man in a butchery in Pimville for 4 years, with STD 7.’620

His application was turned down on the basis that there was a nearby butcher that was

owned by Isaac Moeketsi next to his proposed business premises which was

approximately 500 yards away.621

In the opinion of the Special Justice of the Peace,

there were sufficient butcheries in Evaton to fulfill the needs of the population.622

He

was also refused on the fact that he had only £35 to finance his business.623

License

application requirements were tricky, and Licensing Board officials were aware that it

was difficult for Africans to meet all the requirements. These tactics legitimised the

denial of licenses, while officials overlooked business integrity and good character.

The question of business integrity and good character is arguable considering that we

do not have evidence whether were business applicant really competent.

619

National Archive of South Africa, Application for Trade License of Katy and Richard Ntshika, NTS

25 August 1946 620

National Archives of South Africa, Application for Trade License of J Leburu NTS 1310/162, 13

August 1946 621

Ibid 622

Ibid 623

ibid

186

Most licenses that were granted were associated with daily fresh products like milk;

vegetable and mineral water appear to have been promoted by the Rural Licensing

Board. At a more general level, these businesses seem to have been committed to the

healthy well-being of local residents. They provided critical opportunities to increase

access to healthy foods, including fresh fruits and vegetables. It could be argued that

the promotion of healthy food was in line with the national policy on health and

labour. It is difficult to establish whether the role of the Rural Licensing Boards in

promoting healthy shops was compelling when considering that much of the

discussion about the position of Africans within South African society revolved

around problems of health. During this period, the health problems rhetoric became

the central justification for implementing a system of urban segregation.624

The

promotion of these stores and health were multifaceted. On the one hand, it served as

a means to undo African economic progress which had already been made in Evaton.

On the other hand, it aimed to control local enterprises and benefit from local revenues

while promoting a healthy workforce.

Arguing from the health perspective, a better understanding of how these enterprises

created a demand for healthy and less healthy purchasing patterns appears to have

been part of the toolkit of the Peri-Urban Health advocates and officials. These health

measures appear to have been evoked to foster specific sets of political and economic

interests in South Africa and were part of the language of legitimation. This is

reflected in Jim Joubert’s625

application letters for a fresh produce licence. I P

O’Driscoll, the Additional Native Commissioner, wrote,

The application is recommended, notwithstanding his meagre capital and lack of

education and experience as no great measure of these qualifications is required to

conduct a business of Fresh Produce Dealer, and it is thought desirable that the use of

624 M Swanson, The Sanitation Syndrome: Bubonic Plague and Urban Segregation in the Cape Colony,

1900- 1909. Journal of African History. 18(3): 1977, p. 387-410.

625 We should not be confused by the surname of Joubert as referring to white resident, it was stated in

previous chapters that there were group of Oorlams in Evaton who were officially classified as

coloureds. These coloured as had white surname that they acquired

187

fresh fruit and vegetable be encouraged amongst residents of Evaton Native

Township626

It should be noted that the central government incorporated Evaton as part of the local

industrial labour pool and the Board was concerned with local economic regeneration

against a wider backdrop of a changing manufacturing economy in the 1940s. This

prompted the Board to put its emphasis on the promotion of a healthy local workforce

which included elements of physiology, infectious diseases, hygiene and health

promotion and nutrition.

Conclusion

The chapter has shown that African entrepreneurship in Evaton was free from

government legislation until the 1940s. The emergence of wide range of control

measures resulted from the population explosion that placed Evaton on the spotlight.

These measures were introduced through health parlance that was used by the Peri-

Urban Health as an excuse for the implementation of trade licenses. It is possible that

the new entrepreneurial policy shops arose from the change that was introduced by the

National Party and white pressure groups. This is evident in the tone of the letters that

were sent by Evaton Health Committee to the Native Affairs Department. The newly

introduced by-laws impacted negatively on butcheries which formed important local

entrepreneurial activity.

626

National Archive of South Africa, Application for Trade License of Jim Joubert, NTS 1244

1330/162, 14 October 1946

188

Conclusion

This historical study was motivated largely by the fact that Africans were deprived of

economic and political autonomy by successive white governments. This deprivation

lies in complex and inter-connected processes of dispossession experienced by

Africans, first of their land and second of economic independence.627

This study has

drawn attention to a number of significant reactions to the processes of dispossession,

displacement and economic subjugation. Firstly, it illustrated how property ownership

influenced local community formation, and how it worked against the backdrop of

land restrictions against Africans. Secondly, it shed light on how displaced and broken

rural communities reshaped themselves in a new space where they enjoyed relative

autonomy. Thirdly, it captured how the complex processes of internal community

formation were shaped by the government decree that combined internal structuring

and development which gave Evaton its distinct character. Economically, Africans

were increasingly losing their economic independence and becoming proletarianised.

This study was thus also concerned to illuminate the struggles of a group of Africans

for economic independence within a particular locality. This was explained through

analysing a process of economic developments that covers subsistence economy and

the rise of entrepreneurship. This was also captured through the examination of one

group of people, defined by their presence in Evaton, from the time they departed

from their various farming areas to establish various entrepreneurial activities.

This study did not only present the connection between local entrepreneurs and the

notion of economic independence in Evaton in the first half of the twentieth century. It

has offered some insights into the relationship between freehold settlements and the

fulfilment of personal desires that were restricted by discriminating laws. It has shown

how Evaton was seen by different categories of Africans as a space where they could

escape some state restrictions. It also captures how the locality provided opportunities

for basic economic and educational advancement. Evaton offered new opportunities

that Africans were denied by the state. In addition to entrepreneurship, the

627 C. Murray, ‘Land of the Barolong : Annexation and Alienation,’ unpublished seminar paper,

University of London, 1984

189

establishment of Wilberforce Institute by the AME Church reflected the desire by

Africans for autonomous and African-controlled education. The other was the

establishment of independent churches that reacted against religious domination. In

these churches, Africans were inspired to preach without authorization and

surveillance from white missionaries. More importantly, was self-governance that

Evaton enjoyed. The settlement provided relative autonomy and an attractive urban

destination for regulated migration of African workers. It also allowed stand-holders

to create social relationships by forming supportive community groups, self-help and

mutual aid. This generated internal community solidarity and local networks that cut

across ethnic lines. These social networks were clearly reflected in independent

churches.

In the late 1930s and 1940s when the area experienced a spurt in population growth,

the local economic activity was transformed. This quickened the pace of urbanization

that emerged along with new economic activities. It gave residents an opportunity to

grow economically by investing in businesses. Some residents turned from subsistence

farming to become entrepreneurs. As a freehold settlement, Evaton may be perceived

as the social space that provided commercial opportunities away from white urban

towns and locations. The freehold status and its relaxed laws attracted urban

entrepreneurs who could not grow economically in other urban locations. Importantly,

African women enjoyed considerable independence in Evaton. This was displayed by

their role in business. Local women were involved in income generating activities in a

form of entrepreneurship. During these years, African women in urban areas of South

Africa dominated beer brewing enterprise. Some were not economically active they

were engaged in back breaking burden of subsistence economy in the reserves, and

those who were active were involved in doing washing for whites. Unlike the large

group of African women who engaged in illicit beer brewing activity, local women

were hawkers who traded food products and crafts in urban Johannesburg. As

Christians, beer brewing activity was the most disliked activity partly because of the

social disorders that local migrant tenant Basotho women caused by beer brewing.

This shed the light on how local women played important role in feeding

Johannesburg which is the topic that has received little attention from historians. This

also provides us with an insight on the connection between Evaton and Johannesburg

and the relative role of food consumption and production. This implies that local

190

women formed a chain of food suppliers to the growing city of Johannesburg. The

research has explained how purported health concerns impacted on business

regulatory measures, and particularly in butcheries. It has also shown how new

regulations contributed to the demise of butcheries and shops. Interestingly, though

not distinct to Evaton, the study connects entrepreneurial regulatory measures and the

manner in which the government came to assert its control over Evaton. This

investigation compared two different periods, the era before and after 1940. These two

periods presented two different administration approaches. Firstly, the period when

the Native Commissioners had a limited role in local affairs. Secondly, the subsequent

era when virtually every aspect of Evatonian’s lives was subjected to intrusive hands

of clerks, bureaucrats and administrators of one sort or another. In the period before

1940s, Evaton presented a different entrepreneurial environment that was free of

regulations, and unlimited trade opportunities. For the local entrepreneurial

community, freehold tenure implied that they were permanent residents rather than

temporary visitors in urban areas. They traded freely in their own spaces. They could

build any type of structure without application to building authorities. There were no

regulations that regulated on what to trade and how to trade

In the 1940s, changing political and economic conditions in South Africa ushered new

set of dynamics for Evaton entrepreneurs. These conditions impacted on freehold

status that precluded the national government to gain total control over local economy.

Given a relative independence that Evaton enterprise benefitted from, local

entrepreneurship demonstrated a strong commercial character that attributed prospects

for bright future growth and commercial development. However, the interference of

the central government in the administration of local affairs presented a turning point

in the history of the local economy. New regulations and licenses were implemented

and these restrain local economic independence and freehold status of the area. The

settlement status was degraded into municipality controlled township, local

commercial activities that prevented local residents from working in white industries

declined and the culture labour market dependence emerged.

191

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the Secretary for Justice 20 November 1916, 20 November 1916, JUS 240 3/881/6

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from the Assistant Native Commissioner to

the Native Commissioner, File, NTS 1247 1385/16, 29 October 1951

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from the Assistant Native Commissioner to

the Native Commissioner, NTS 1247 1385/1629, October 1951

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from the Native Commissioner to the

Secretary of Native Affairs on Evaton Administration matters NTS 361/364, 27 July

1930

National Archive of South Africa, AA letter from Baillie to the Native Commissioner,

File TALG 7/15571,

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from the Standholders of Small Farm to the

Secretary for Native Affairs, File NTS 361/364, (undated)

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from Sam Rom Attorneys to the Secretary

for Native Affairs, NTS 361/364, 6 December 1945

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from Sam Rom Attorneys to the Secretary

for Native Affairs, NTS 361/364, 6 December 1945,

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from the Native Commissioner to the

Secretary of Native Affairs on Evaton Administration matters NTS 361/364, 31 July

1930

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from Hope Baillie to the Acting

Entomologist Mr Gunn dated, BNS 1/8/ 116/ 4197, 25 July 1909

National Archive of South Africa, A letter from the Secretary for Native Affairs to the

Native Affairs Department NTS 361/364, 13 October 1944

National Archives of South Africa, A letter from J De Roos to the Secretary of Native

Affairs, JUS 240 3/881/16, 1 December 1916

National Archives of South Africa, A letter from R. T. Luther to the Secretary for

Native Affairs, GNLB 273, 3 April 1917

212

A letter from McCrobet and De Villiers Attorneys to the Secretary for Native Affairs

dated 16 February 1930 NTS 376 252/56 National Archive of South Africa

National Archive of South Africa, A letter written by the Additional Native

Commissioner in response to the trade license application of Josiah Moagi, NTS

1312/162,

National Archive of South Africa A letter from Sergeant Pretorious to the Magistrate

of Vereeniging, Enforcement of Dog Tax at Evaton Township, NTS 361/362, A letter

from S. P Bunting Attorneys Notary and Conveyances written to the Secretary for

Native Affairs, 28 September 1931, NTS 361/364, National Archive of South

Africa,16 May 1933

, Trade License Application for Jim Joubert, 29 March 1946, NTS 361/364 NTS 1244,

1323/162

National Archive of South Africa, A letter written to the Secretary of Native Affairs

from the Native Commissioner 14 October 1915 NTS 361/364

National Archive of South Africa, A letter written by the Secretary for Native Affairs

to Moagi on his application for mortgage bond 12 November 1941, NTS 361/ 364

National Archive of South Africa, Director of Native Agriculture’s report on slaughter

facilities NTS 361/364,

National Archives of South Africa, A letter from R. T. Luther to the Secretary for

Native Affairs dated 3 April 1917, GNLB 273

National Archives of South Africa, A letter from the Acting Chief Pass Officer to the Director

of Native Labour GNLB 273 160/17/030

National Archives of South Africa, A letter from R. T. Luther to the Secretary for Native

Affairs dated 3 April 1917, GNLB 273

National Archives of South Africa, A letter from the Acting Chief Pass Officer to the Director

of Native Labour GNLB 273 160/17/030

National Archives of South Africa, A letter from S.P Bunting to the Secretary for Native

Affairs, 28 September 1931 NTS 361/364, South African Native National Archives

NationalArchives of South Africa, Trade License Application for J Leburu NTS

1310/162, 13 August 1946

National Archives of South Africa, Trade License Application for Katy and Richard

Ntshika, NTS 1305/162, 25 August 1946

National Archive of South Africa, Trade Licence Application for John Mtsweni, NTS

1244 1309/162, 27 November 1946,

213

National Archive of South Africa, Report of the Native Affairs Commissioner on

Evaton Township, 27 May 1947, NTS 361/364,

National Archive of South Africa, A report of the Native Commissioner reporting to

the Honourable the Minister of Native Affairs,, 27 May 1947, NTS 361/364,

National Archive of South Africa,The Report of the Deputy Director of Native Affairs

entitled ‘the future’ undated NTS 361-364,

National Archive of South Africa, The Report of the Director of Native Agriculture on

Evaton Native Slaughter Facilities, undated, NTS 361-364,

National Archive of South Africa, The Report of the Acting Secretary to the Minister

of Native Affairs, 27 May 1947, NTS 361/364,

National Archive of South Africa, A Report of the Deputy Chief Health Inspector on

Local Health Condition, 27 May 1940, NTS 361-364,

National Archive of South AfricaReport of the Native Affair Commission, NTS

361/364, 1939

National Archive of South Africa, The Report of the Secretary for Native Affairs, 15

September 1935, URU Vol, 524. Ref 3/881/16, A Report of the Deputy Chief Health

National Archive of South Africa, Inspector on Local Health Condition,17 May 1946,

NTS 361-364,

National Archive of South Africa, The Native Commissioner Report, 12 May 1941,

NTS 361/364,

National Archives of South AfricaUntitled document from the Secretary of Native

Affairs NTS 361/364

National Archive of South Africa, Peri Urban Health Inspectors Report. NTS 361/364,

3 May 1943

National Archive of South Africa, Report of the Native Affairs Commissioner on

Evatton Township, , NTS 361/364, 27 May 1947

National Archives of South Africa Pass Officer report on his visit to Wilberforce

Primary Section, 1919 NTS 373/56 5, December, 1935

National Archives of South Africa, A report from the Secretary of Native Affairs,

SNA 287, NA 2870, 1905

National Archive of South Africa, A Letter from Macrobert and De Villiers Attorneys

to the Secretary for Native Affairs NTS 376 252/26, 16 January 1930

214

National Archive of South Africa, Interim Report No. 7 in respect of Evaton, District

Vereeniging in the Province of the Transvaal, , NTS 361/364, 11 March 1939

National Archive of South Africa, Native Affairs Memo on Question of Local

Authority for Evaton Native Affairs, 11 June 1953, NTS 361/364,

National Archive of South Africa, Interim Report No. 7 in respect of Evaton, District

Vereeniging in the Province of the Transvaal, , NTS 361/364, 11 March 1939

National Archive of South Africa, Notes of Discussion with Dr. Maule Clark on

Health Conditions at Evaton Native Township, , 361/364, 17 April 1947

National Archive of South Africa, The Health conditions report that was presented by

Dr Clark to the Secretary for Native Affairs, , NTS 361/364, 12 May 1939

National Archive of South Africa, The Report of the Inspector of Urban Locations on

Evaton Township, NTS 361/364, 1 September 1938

National Archive of South Africa, Evaton Health Committee, Regulation for the

Supervision, Regulation and control of Businesses, Trade and Occupation

Amendments. TALG 13/155552, 1947

National Archive of South Africa, Evaton Health Committee, Executive Committee,

TALG 13/155552 27 August 1954

National Archives of South Africa, A Report of the Secretary of Peri Urban Health

Board, NTS 361/364, 12 August 1956

National Archive of South Africa, The Discussion with Dr Maule Clark, Deputy Chief

Health Inspector at Pretoria on the conditions at Evaton Native Township, NTS 361/

364, 17 April 1947

The Office of the Surveyor General, Pretoria, Deeds of Transfer 9427/1905 9428/

1905

Government Publication

Native Urban Areas Act, Act No. 21 of 1923, Union of South Africa, Pretoria,

Government Printers 1923

Native Economic Commission, Sol Plaatjie testimony in Economic Commission,

1932, UG. 22 Pretoria, Government Printers

Occupation of Church, School and Mission Sites in Native Areas, prepared by Union

Department of Native Affairs, Government Printing and Stationary Office, Pretoria,

1918

215

Official Year Book of the Union of South Africa, 1960, p 535, Pretoria, Government

Printers

Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Trade Licensing and Allied Problem,

Government Publisher, Union of South Africa U G 2, 1961

Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Shop hours to the honourable administrator

of Transvaal on shop hours, Pretoria, Government Printers, 1968

Newspapers and Magazines

The Rand Daily Mail, 20 June 1933

The Black Sash Magazine, 1983, p. 25

Native Labour, Friend 26 Febraury 1892.